Here's a conversation I had on facebook with a friend. He was commenting on how few republicans voted in the Maine Caucus.
ME: I'll vote for you if you promise to end the wars, restore habeus corpus, repeal the patriot act, and restore due process.
MY FRIEND: you've got yourself a deal, a few more votes and i'll be in contention for the republican nomination
ME: And you can still run on a socialist platform. It doesn't seem to hurt Romney/Santorum/Gingrich
MY FRIEND: Considering that I am a socialist, this sounds like it'll work out great
ME: In order to win the republican nomination you would need to denounce all things socialist, while advocating everything socialist at the same time. Think you can handle it?
MY FRIEND: pretty sure I could play word smith well enough to confuse the republican base without actually compromising my beliefs