Republicans....

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think fear of what Obama will do without the prospect of having to win votes again, will drive many Republicans and conservatives out to the polls regardless of who the nominee is. I think you will see efforts by the PACs, American Crossroads etc etc to ensure that every conservative and every Republican is reminded just why they don't like Barack Obama. If attacks will be made on healthcare, they will be the ones to make it, not Romney. There is a PAC supported ad running here that attacks Obama as being a Wall Street whore. That kind of thing will continue regardless of whether Romney is the nominee and will face no accountability for having a Wall Street candidate, either.

We have seen this already with Romney's PAC launching attacks against his opponents on things and issues that would also apply to Romney or be hyprocritical for himself to bring up.  Since this will be a faceless PAC run by GOP insiders with no connection to the Romney other than the GOP affiliation, the gloves will be even more off. And Rove will have probably around $75 to $100 million to do this with just his American Crossroads. There will be other PACs in operation as well. This is why Obama reversed himself on utilizing the PACs because he realizes just how much of threat these are if he disarms himself. There is also Reince Priebus at the RNC and the turnout efforts he will be engaging in. He has some kind of effort going on, that he utilized successfully in WI and is now deploying nationwide.

That said, you do need some level of grassroots and some level of pavement pounding to get the job done. Especially in a state like Virginia, a state that could easily slip away in a close race for lack of grassroots efforts on Mitten's behalf. There is a risk that Crossroads and the RNC turn out conservatives and they defect to a third party or leave the ballot for Prez blank.