Montgomery's black establishment leaders decided they would have to wait for the right person.
"Going Rogue" is just one more example of how her inability or unwillingness to connect with the establishment leaders gives her credibility elsewhere.
But the party's establishment leaders now have what they regard as proof that the activist wing's tactics do not, and will not, work.
On the one side were Mr. Obama and, in effect, although he made no public comment, Mr. Bush, as well as the establishment leaders of both parties.
On Tuesday, a former chief of Israel's military joined the chorus of security establishment leaders speaking out against the idea of an independent Israeli strike.
These parallels point to one conclusion: many working- and middle-class voters, who feel left behind by globalisation, are far angrier than establishment leaders realised.
There also are younger native Republicans, raised in the state's suburbs, who are less inclined to walk lock step with establishment leaders.
For years, establishment leaders like Clinton, Bush and Obama have attempted to placate rising nativism on the right instead of confronting it, implementing immigration and border crackdowns.
Mr. Romney's supporters passed new rules governing future primaries over the loud boos of Ron Paul supporters and other conservative activists who had objected to what they said was a power grab by the party's establishment leaders.
A Tea Party rally in Racine over the weekend drew a large crowd, but it also featured several Republican establishment leaders, including Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee.
