I'm not sure that computes.

Sure Reagan was ideologically pure, charismatic, and ultimately successful. Bush I, McCain and Dole were highly qualified candidates, not to mention war heroes (that really matters to Republicans, unless the heroes happen to be Democrats).

Dubya was their Great White Hope, the man who would put the Clinton years behind them once and for all. He turned out to be the new Hoover, instead. The reason they loathe Obama so much is they're afraid he'll be the new FDR.
This is why they must stop him at all costs. He must be discredited, destroyed, humiliated. You've heard the rhetoric, they're terrified of him, they are chewing up the carpet at the very mention of his name.

But this time around Mitt was qualified (and it was his turn, to boot). The rest of the gang was laughable, except for Pawlenty (who left prematurely) and Huntsman (the best of the lot, in my opinion), but he sounded too liberal to get past the Tea Party. He wasn't too liberal, he just sounded too liberal.

Still, there were other formidable potential candidates in the GOP; Jeb, Barbour, Christie, not to mention a respectable list of popular state governors and some charismatic and personable Senators and Congressmen that would have passed TP muster and still had some appeal for the Establishment. These are smart guys, who speak good English and make sense.

Instead, we got the Klown Kar, Cain, Bachman, Perry, Paul, with guest appearances from Palin and Trump. Even the other survivors are either too far Right, or have burned too many bridges behind them to be acceptable, even to conservatives. This is not an ideological slam, like I said, there are smart people in the GOP, they just haven't been able to nominate any.

Something else is going on in the Republican Party, some kind of internal power struggle. Maybe its that dreaded "asymmetric polarization" you hear so much about.