I picked "No Romney is not conservative enough".
Romney didn't win the Republican nomination for president, he bought it. He's not the only one; the general trend in primaries is whoever spends the most money gets it. Why anyone who looks at the candidate's positions and track record would vote for Romney is beyond me. In 2012, he was by far the weakest candidate in the field during the primary, and had no substantial differences with Obama in the general.
Why do people plug Romney? Do you actually think he's the best person for the job?
He was THE BEST QUALIFIED POTUS CANDIDATE in decades.
He was the best individual for the job. He was the finest individual to have run in decades. He was/is a WORLD CLASS BUSINESS TURNAROUND EXPERT.
When you have a sick child you choose the best surgeon no matter their politics.
We had/have a sick country and Romney is a SUPERSTAR at turning around large organizations.
DUH!
We could have hired him to play for OUR team!
Those who lament his past business activities might take a lesson from the world of MLB.
What?
You mean to say there is something we political types can learn from the highly paid millionaires who play baseball?
Yes.
When you face a team with a superstar player who always has a big game against your faves and is a hated but respected rival player, the thing SMART teams do is trade for that player so he will be scoring runs for YOU as well as making sure he can't continue helping to beat your club!
Mitt Romney is the MVP player on the other team YOU can get to pklay for you!
Well, that was the thought in 2012.
We could have hired THE BEST business leader possible to get America back on track.
If he did that would you really care if he took some time to finally realize he couldn't abide abortion any longer as Gov. of Mass?
Political elites picked Romney as the Republican nominee and helped him win that position for the express purpose of him losing to Obama.
Look at it from a strategic standpoint. Romney was portrayed as the crooked, greedy investor who made millions off the backs of the working class. Obama was sold as the working man's candidate, he was "one of us." While Saint Barack wanted to make sure everyone had access to affordable healthcare, the biggest pillar in the campaign of evil Romney was repealing Obamacare. Every debate, every ad, every soundbite, every appearance--let's undo Obama's work. In many of the statements he made where he wasn't directly attacking Obama, those not completely sold on voting for Romney still picked up the "I hate Obama" undertones.
Romney's political image was carefully crafted to be everything that people leaning even slightly to the left would hate. While Obama played the part of Messiah, Romney was cast as the Anti-Christ. It wasn't necessarily overt, and this wasn't done full-on from the beginning, but having followed the election from start to finish, this is the message the 2012 presidential race was meant to convey. You probably don't see it that way; you come across--at least to me--as someone who is skeptical of Obama and respects rather than abhors financial success. There is a prejudice inherent to all people that causes us to view the same facts in a completely different light.
For example, you say that "Romney is a SUPERSTAR at turning around large organizations", but this isn't how he was thought of at all. Gingrich established Romney's business record as that of a "corporate raider" early on in the primary, it stuck with him throughout the general, and there was no substantial effort made by him to correct it. If he had, some people might've supported him, while others would view his defensiveness as further self-incrimination.
Considering all of this, I stand by my earlier assertion that Romney was the worst of the Republicans running in 2012. Whoever our candidate is in 2016, it needs to be someone without all the baggage and who doesn't sound like a radical leftist caricature of a Republican.
