I'm sorry, you cannot seriously compare the political junkies at FR who follow politics and political issues like most people follow sports and gossip shows, with the rest of America.
The famous poll that says 27% of conservatives would vote for an unnamed generic canddiate is utterly worthless. Who's going to be the candidate? What party? Look at how well third parties have done the last few elections. Any pro-life billionaires out there with name recognition able to fire up enough people to give s sh*t and throw away their vote, or do you think most Americans will realy be pragmatists and vote for a candidate who will keep things status quo as oposed to Hillary who will gurantee abortions increase and become more plentiful AND paid for with your tax dollars? Now if there is going to be a well funded thirdy aprty independent candidate it will be someone like Mike Bloomberg who most certianly is a social liberal.
America is currently a center right nation, and is also a nation of pragmatists.
What you see happening on FR (the SPLIT in the Party) is exactly,,,yes EXACTLY,,,what everyone (Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative)—pundits, talk show hosts, yes even CNN, FOX, take your pick—is talking about. The potential split in the Party is one of the most discussing topics in any political discussion—and we all know who would cause that split.
This is the Giuliani strategy in a nutshell -- get him the nomination before many Republicans and country realize he is a liberal.
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071020/NATION/110200042/1001
"It looks like they're going to try to survive early, and he's got 16 million bucks in the bank, more than anybody else but [Mitt] Romney, and they'll try to roll through this thing, get to the big states on January 29 and Super Tuesday," said Scott Reed, a former Bob Dole campaign strategist who is not working for any presidential campaign this year. "If he survives that long, then we get into these megastates, where he has high name ID, very high favorables, states where people have not dug down and seen that he's a liberal Republican, and he may have a better chance," Mr. Reed said.