Your 'conventional wisdom' is BS to keep conservatives out of the race.
It doesn't matter in the general election. If enough don't vote for your liberal republican, liberal republicans won't ever win a presidential election.
Running as a liberal republican will be a political kiss of death.
That's good enough for me.
You've lost twice now, voting for liberal republicans. Ready for a change?
/johnny
If by that you mean voting for a 3rd party candidate, then I guess the answer is no. Because no 3rd party candidate has ever won, and the odds are they will never win. If they are a serious candidate they will run in the Republican Party. Just like Reagan did, much to the chagrin of the Party masters who hated Reagan. Problem is I haven't seen a Republican who can impress the conservatives, the party loyalists, and and the independents like Reagan did.
We would never of had Reagan had he ran on a 3rd party ticket because he couldn't overcome the Party masters.