Getting back on track for a second, I had a thought about this massive field of GOP candidates.
It started with being puzzled how the GOP, long behaving as a monolith of unified belief* and action, would fracture like this, and so enormously. So, just to be fun, I thought of a way this could be beneficial in 2016. So check it: You have 2-3 "mainstream" candidates, 10 or so "wingnuts", and maybe five "batshit crazies". They're all preaching variations on a conservative message, often contradictory. This means they can play to a niche market, and draw to them whatever conservatives are passionate to their cause. Then, in a controled consolidation, the batshits drop out and endorse one or more of the wingnuts, who are then cultured and bolstered. The wingnuts, in turn, drop out and endorse either another wingnut or a mainstream, bringing their supporters with them. In short order, you've gathered a fractured and rather tenuous base together under one candidate.
It's so crazy it's not out of the realm of possibility.
*Or at least lip service.