The discombobulated state of the Republican presidential campaign means that it is still possible for someone to jump into the race.  Such a candidate could serve as a kingmaker at the Republican convention in September, or even – yes, it’s possible – could become the party’s nominee.

Currently, Republicans are split among the various candidates; most conservatives are undecided, or ambivalent, or support one candidate or another because the alternatives are worse.  Having been betrayed by a Republican establishment – by a president and members of Congress who pretended to be conservatives in order to get elected – grassroots conservatives are justifiably wary of the present contenders for leadership.  All the remaining GOP presidential candidates have good qualities; all are flawed. 

• McCain has Reagan’s toughness, is a Vietnam War hero, supports a strong military, and opposes pork-barrel spending, but sides with liberals on immigration, freedom of speech, taxes, environmental extremism, and other important issues. 
• Huckabee is a Reagan-style populist  and a conservative on social issues, but is sympathetic to Goreism, and he fought conservatives on taxes, spending, immigration, and other issues when he was governor. 
• Romney has adopted a mostly-Reaganite platform, but he is suspect because he converted to conservatism only after serving as governor, and, besides, many conservatives see him as a probable loser in November. 
• Ron Paul is the real straight-talker in the race, the one who stays truest to the libertarian beliefs that are, as Reagan said, “the heart of conservatism.”  He is the one candidate who doesn’t confuse a strong defense with the failed policy of nation-building.  But most conservatives want a powerful U.S. presence in world affairs and will never support Paul’s defense and foreign policy.  In any event, Paul’s chance of getting elected, or even nominated, is infinitesimal.

No one stands credibly on the three-legged stool that makes up the conservative movement and the heart of a successful Republican campaign – the coalition of economic conservatives, national security conservatives, and social conservatives.

Even Rush Limbaugh has raised the possibility that he may not support the Republican nominee this year.  The nomination of McCain or Huckabee, he said, would destroy the party as we know it.

But what if the Republicans end up with an open convention? 

It’s true that open conventions, common in times past, are rare nowadays.  The last major-party conventions at which more than two candidates had sizeable blocs of delegates were 1952 for the Democrats and 1948 for the Republicans, and the 1976 GOP convention was the last time that either party’s nominee was not determined in advance.  But with four candidates and with none of them acceptable to a strong majority of Republicans or conservatives, it’s possible that no one will have sown up the nomination before the convention.  If that happens, anyone could theoretically win – or, failing an outright win, he or she could exert great influence. 

But who?

Former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen was considered a frontrunner for this year’s GOP nomination before he lost his reelection campaign in 2006.  But his loss can be chalked up to his mishandling of charges of racism and to voter resentment toward the Iraq War, and to the fact that Democrats, desperate to win the Senate, swallowed hard and nominated a former Reagan Administration official to run against him.  If losing one’s previous statewide campaign disqualified a person from being president, neither Lincoln nor Nixon nor the elder Bush would have won.

Or, if the goal of a last-minute conservative candidacy is to rally the movement and build for the future, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma could get into the race.  Coburn could be the Barry Goldwater of his generation – someone who plants the seeds for a future flowering of conservatism, as Goldwater planted the seeds of the Reagan Revolution.

Other possibilities for a serious conservative candidate include Senator Jim DeMint or Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

I’m urging conservatives across this country to start a national discussion, and to e-mail me at RAV@ConservativesBetrayed.com with their thoughts on these questions: Do you think opening up the race is a good idea?  Do you have any other suggestions for candidates?  Could someone come in off the sidelines, change the direction of the momentum, get the fans back into game, and lead us to victory? 

If enough conservatives think and talk about an open convention and a new candidate, perhaps someone will seize the opportunity, unprecedented in modern times, that is presented by the current chaos – the opportunity to help rebuild the conservative movement and change the course of history.

Who could come in off the sidelines and save the day?  Let me know what YOU think.

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Richard A. Viguerie pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations.  He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed—How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

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