With all that said, if the primary process could be changed in terms of the order of states, that would possibly allow a conservative to squeak through. But it never will be changed, and if anything, has been made worse for conservatives in recent cycles, as open primaries are skewing the process.
To win as a conservative, you'd need to be independently wealthy, squeaky clean, articulate like Newt and Reagan, likeable like Reagan, on your first wife, have lovely children, and able to use wit to turn ridicule against the Alinskyites. You are right, we don't have anyone out there who fits that bill. Darn.
For those reasons, and the many I have stated in this thread, I think it will be easier for conservatives to win the Presidency through a third party campaign than through trying to defeat the Republican machine. It would not have to be a true third party. You just have to be beating the Republican candidate in October, and then try to get the Republican party to coalesce around you by sweet talking how you will unite the Republicans again as President. You could reduce Mittens down to 10 percent of the vote (which is what John Anderson got when Reagan won his first term) If you are ahead of him in October. And when you win, you can rejoin and work with Republicans in the Congress, the way Lieberman did with Democrats, and in the manner of Murkowski. In that scenario, the Republicans want to be with the winner, and conservatives will get control of the party back that way. If the GOPe won't cooperate, they can just go the way of the Whigs.
Your view is a recipe for decades more of RINO socialist candidates, very few of whom will win and none of whom will change anything.
You can't take over the GOP without winning the nomination, and you can't win the nomination with the RNC stacked against conservatives. Not without taking them by surprise, like Ronald Reagan did.
That's not the way I remember it. The cleanup came the nomination and election of course, but much was done prior during the previous primary and afterward.
And, if I accept your premise, you still acknowledge Reagan did it. I don't remember that as a surprise but a multi-year struggle hand-to-hand.
My views here are based on my experience. I've seen and participated in radical change in the party on the local, regional, state and national level. These party positions in a great great many cases are the most insecure one could imagine. I've seen whole scale turnover in less than a week. Perhaps your experience is different, I'm certainly aware that could be the case.
As for a third party, I'm gonna repeat that if you can't do it within the GOP, you can't do it from scratch; anything you can do with a third party you can do easier and quicker within the GOP. All the tasks, tactics and strategy are the same and they're easier to do without having to do everything from scratch completely unknown.
I especially don't see how Obama's election changes anything on its own. He was elected last time too.
Thanks again for your reply.