Very nice...

Why did that have to be your response?  Really... I'm asking in all honesty.

You are a "Reagan" conservative.  You espouse and live the ideals that are modern conservatism, with only the very fewest exceptions... and who did YOU vote for in the last general election?

Because McCain was a luke-warm conservative (at best), and his running mate was an almost unknown fringe element from the last American Frontier, did you get disgruntled with everything "GOP" and cast your vote for Obama?  Did you sit home and NOT vote?  Did you write in the name of your preferred candidate on your ballot?  Romney, perhaps?

No, Ryan.  You voted for the candidate that the majority of registered Republicans in this nation chose as their candidate... John McCain.  Then you watched him lose.

At no point did I suggest that Reagan wasn't "conservative" when he ran in 1980... he certainly was if the term is used in its modern definition, no question.  What I WAS suggesting is that Reagan won the election in the manner that he did NOT because he appealed to conservative voters... but because he appealed to moderate voters, to independents, and to out-of-work liberals who were living the "dream" of Carter's job policies.  His "landslide" victory came from the middle... not from the right or the left.  He didn't water-it-down for the masses, either.  He simply spelled it out in terms everyone could understand (he even employed graphs, for God's sake).  His principles and positions remained the same with most other conservative candidates in 1980... but his appeal was vastly different.  He truly believed in his agenda... and he convinced most of the rest of us that it was the right agenda, as well.

Now, your previous post seems to show that you feel I support a candidate that will run on the premise that the entire campaign be geared to appeal ONLY to the middle.  Not at all.  I'd love a candidate that could present the case of why the conservative agenda is better than the liberal one to the voters of America... not so he or she could sway the vote of card-carrying GOP members, but because he or she might induce the MIDDLE to vote for him.  Exactly the way Reagan did in 1980.

Which of the four remaining candidates in the GOP ring are going to do that, do you suppose?