I agree with you on all your points about Romney (whom I voted for, too, although I was certainly not happy when he was selected as the candidate).
Someone made the point on Breitbart that the determining factor was a cultural one, that is, that the majority of Americans are now fine with an internationalist, government-dominated moral and economic life. I think that’s true to some extent, but I also think that there are many who are very unhappy about it and unfortunately Romney didn’t give them a rallying point for expressing this. He and the GOP strategists obviously decided that the way to win was to cater to the culture rather than oppose it, and they really never called Obama and the Dems on anything they have said or even done.
I think Perry or Gingrich would have been real opposition candidates and we might have won with either of them, because they would have provided that cultural rallying point. (And both of them, btw, would have been brave enough to address the concerns of Hispanic voters, who are fundamentally conservative but feel unwelcome in the GOP).
Perry and Gingrich, I think, would have fought. Perry entered with the next best financial backing, but soon proved that he had entered the race without the necessary preparation. By the end, though, he had figured it out. He did not stop fighting.
Gingrich, on the other hand, fought the entire way, but simply couldn’t get the financial piece together.
If we could have Gingrich’s brain in Perry’s body, we’d have a great candidate.