Romney created Candidate Trump.
Had Romney stood up for the conservative values that our “severe conservative” failed candidate claims to have, voters might have trusted the mainstream candidates more.
Had Romney not led the party elders down the path of Obamacare, Amnesty (that’s why he lost - not liberal enough on rewarding illegals for their crimes), and other policies that made our party indistinguishable from the democrats, voters might have supported one of the successful and popular governors in the race.
Had Romney, as party leader, not convinced Congress to avoid conflict with Obama, voters might have supported a conservative US Senator.
Romney led the party down a path that rejected everything republican voters believe in. In response, republican voters rejected every candidate who followed Romney. Mitt has often been dismissed as irrelevant, but the truth is worse. Mitt is the problem.
“Romney created Candidate Trump.”
Overstates things a lot. The MSM created an opening for Trumps buffoonery by ignoring and excusing Clinton’s bad behavior. Bush and the RNC apparatus refused to defend themselves from near continuous attack from the leftists with press passes, then McCain raised the ante by attacking anyone who tried to show that Obama was unqualified.
“Romney led the party down a path that rejected everything republican voters believe in. In response, republican voters rejected every candidate who followed Romney. Mitt has often been dismissed as irrelevant, but the truth is worse. Mitt is the problem.”
Mitt was a symptom of the problem more than the problem himself. He was the second nominee in a row that ran against major planks of the Republican Party platform. I also do not think he was a member of the RNC committee that wrote the, much celebrated by the MSM, campaign autopsy after He lost. The RNC will have troubles untill they accept that Republican Voters have dispute their report on the causes of their loss in 2012, and reject the proposed solutions.
Trumps written position papers seem to me to be largely mainstream republican positions, and those where he differs from the RNC are all positions supported by over 60% of voters.