He ignored the Tea Party, Sarah. He tried literally to destroy all of his opponents. People could not forget that. I still believe he was in plots with several candidates to stop Newt after Palin said publicly Vote, Newt! I think Romney's staff leaked those odd stories about Herman. Herman was on top for awhile. Mitt was on the insider team (which we want a team) though, that special club looks down on most of us as being too in your face with our views(as we need to tone it down, they think)
His convention was milk toast no red meat, I saw from the candidate, Miit. Palin should had been. My lib friends were saying the GOP were nuts for keeping her away. So, we should not trust the leftist media when they tell you that one of yours are too far out there. Those are the people they fear that will rally a protest. It is a shame what happened. The GOP has to get a stronger candidate next time.
You make great observations. The whole thing was a train wreck. GOP-E was totally focused against the Tea Party and not Obama.
Notice that no matter how far to the Left their side gets, they are never presented as "extremists" or "Whackos". Heck, even our own side tends to kick the dog crap out of anyone who suggests return to original intent.
How in the heck are we going to win doing their work for them?
We can't out Democrat the Democrats, can't out Liberal the Liberals, and for d@mned sure can't give away more than they do, but the novel tactic of appealing to the base might work, if it was tried.
Had Romney's bunch decided to remind Catholics of their ties to a Church that would not budge on gay marriage nor abortion/obamacare, maybe they could have brought in more votes, especially from the Hispanic Catholics (run the ads in Spanish, in the appropriate market areas). Put the fear of God in the voters, where it counts. That could have been an entire ad campaign, and that is just one instance of where fighting the good fight might have made a difference.
Your post is spot on!