Notice that 3 of the 4 main GOP candidates...

[All Along The Watchtower]

...were Republican establishment candidates. Only Ron Paul, IMO, could really lay claim to being outside of the Republican establishment.

Granted, the three may have represented different parts of the GOP establishment, but none of them were really outside the GOP mainstream, in voter base, donor base, or ideology.

[minionofmidas]

It would be a very odd party mainstream to produce a lower figure.

And honestly I'm not entirely sure we should really consider Paul's ideology, or a large part of his base, as outside the party's mainstream anymore. (Though the man himself probably still should be.)

[All Along The Watchtower]

It would be a very odd party mainstream to produce a lower figure.

And honestly I'm not entirely sure we should really consider Paul's ideology, or a large part of his base, as outside the party's mainstream anymore. (Though the man himself probably still should be.)

True, but there is a certain narrative that the GOP is locked into a battle between "the establishment" and "the base", when it is probably more accurate to say that different parts of the GOP establishment are/were fighting over the direction of the party.

And yeah, I suppose you're right about Paul.