This is a self-defeating prophecy. If enough conservatives band behind a Virgil Goode, a Tom Hoefling, or anyone else for that matter, you can give YOURSELF someone who can take the lead from Romney. That's how the Tea Party was built -- individuals banding together to make a positive electoral difference.
To make it work, though, you have to think outside the box of the traditional Grand Old Plantation. Is it a long shot? Absolutely. But no cause worth winning was ever handed to anyone. It had to be earned.
In short, put your shoulder to the wheel and help instead of waiting for victory to come to you. If you know "Romney stinks", as you say, what do you have to lose?
You are thinking waaay too small. Like I said, conservatives can't do it alone. Look at all the different types of folks who are bank-rolling and voting for Romney. Those are the folks you need to persuade.
Me? I'm voting for whoever leads the pack against Obama at the moment I walk into the voting booth. But for someone to lead the pack, they are going to have to look far beyond us conservatives. Conservatives as a voting bloc are easily outnumbered by all the other registered republicans, centrists, RINOs, right-leaning dems, libertarians, independants, north-east-country-clubbers, etc, etc, etc...
Your unknown candidates won't go far enough via the conservative grassroots alone. All those voting demographics I mentioned above? The vast majority of them will vote like they are told to vote, by the MSM, the Dems and the GOP. It is entirely frustrating, but that's what we are up against. People no longer look at voting like they did in the 50's.
I'm not voting to make myself feel good. That's what the primaries were for. Now I'm voting for survival and damage control. At this point, I don't care who I vote for, as long as he stand the best chance of defeating Obama. I'll vote for the town drunk if he's out in front.
That being said, I'm also not against primary-ing Romney if he's elected. In fact, I hope we do find some candidate we can all agree on (pipe dream, I know) to primary Romney if he's elected, if only to keep the pressure on.
I live in one of the most conservative counties in my state. I assure you that if you did a telephone survey of my county and asked respondents about Virgil Goode, or Tom Hoefling, most would ask "Who?"