In most cases, however, a Republican first has to survive the primary process, which brings out the most committed ideological conservatives.
It is, therefore, necessary to confront the "problem" of the primary process, which has in recent times received two "answers".
In the early years of the reformed primary process, which dates back to 1972, you had a couple of candidates — George McGovern and Jimmy Carter — who won without elite support.
The pollsters attributed the results in part on the Republican primary process, which Americans viewed negatively overall, and on Mr. Romney's unpopularity among women.
Stewart took part in Penrith's brief, low-budget primary process, which that October culminated in a public meeting, and a vote, in the town's cattle-auction ring.
"This is a group that all felt frustrated by the primary process," which pushed Mr. Romney rightward, said Stephen Babson, a private equity investor who was a finance chairman in Oregon.
"The problem in the United States is that the extreme can dictate, particularly in the primary process, which tends to have more extreme single-issue groups, where they can actually nominate people who do not represent the mainstream of the party.
Five days away from the New York primary, independent voters protested the state's closed primary process, which they say will exclude nearly 3 million residents from voting on April 19 — a particularly damaging prospect for non-establishment candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
This weekend her aides are frantically seeking to reverse the arithmetic of the primary process, which gives Obama a near unbeatable superiority in delegates at the August Democratic convention.
