There are many things I don’t know, and like you don’t understand why he went soft after the first debate. He had zero on the ropes, then did nothing to get the knock out punch he needed. Perhaps it was his mushy advisers - the same ones who were in the McCain camp. Why do they insist on using these useless retread losers?
Romney wasn’t hip or cool. SO what? I don’t care if my president is hip or cool. I want someone who has the smarts to turn this country around. Mitt had it - then lost it. He also avoided conservatives like the plague. He kept saying he was going to repeal obamacare, but never told the uninformed why or what was in the bill. Maybe he was afraid that if he did then obama would hit back with the fact that obamacare was based on romneycare - and it was. Most of us knew this would be a huge problem for Mitt.
Benghazi still remains a mystery. Why he didn’t punch him in the political face with this is beyond most of us. He got snookered by Candy Crowley and lost his nerve or something. I don’t know - all I know is we have 4 more years of a marxist in the WH because Romney and camp decided to take the “high” road and play nice. IT worked very well for McCain too.
Swing voters often vote their gut feelings. Romney failed to connect with them. And the trick is NOT to pretend you are a Democrat-lite. Ask Bob Dole. Romney apparently thought he could just simply claim he is a regular guy - when he is not. He could not relate to a middle-class person trying hard to stay in the middle class. People saw in him, right or wrong, the guy who swoops down on a company and triggers layoffs. He really was the wrong candidate for this election on so many levels.
The GOP wins when it runs anti-elitists, or at least men or women that come across as such. Reagan was a non-Ivy leaguer. Bush may have been a third-generation blueblood, but he lived the life of a guy whose idea of high cusine was a cheeseburger and whose idea of fun was clearing brush. Palin (the only thing that gave McCain a fighting chance) was a blue-collar gal and a true reformer. Romney could never shake the image of the oily MBA born into privilege that you hope is never let anywhere near the reigns of the division you work in.