Romney is not a conservative and did little to espouse them to the masses. Strike one.
He is a mormon and like it or not, a lot of christians could not bring themselves to vote for one. Strike two.
Like Rush said, it is hard to get people to vote for hard work when they get free goodies for themselves. We have too many parsites in this country. Once people found out them could vote for largesse, the end is near. Strike three.
Bush's fault!!