Romney's liberal positions were in the third area (abortion, gay agenda, etc.) and he was at least pretending to be pro-life in 2012 (vs. Obama being even more fanatically pro-abortion than the average Democratic politician). In this area he might have been more of a Gerald Ford/G. H. W. Bush "moderate" so we'd be unhappy with some of his actions but he couldn't have been as bad as Obama--at worst a Mussolini to Obama's Hitler.
Romney played it too safe--I recall a column by Victor Davis Hanson a few days before the election predicting that Romney's failure to go after Obama while expecting the bad economy to decide the election would be a disaster and he was right.
The problem is to win the election we have to draw in a lot of middle-of-the-road, low-information voters...there aren't enough conservatives to win national elections with just the conservative base.
1. "Believes in the capitalist system," wrong. Very very wrong, and his own actions prove it, from claiming that global climate environmental regulation need not create economic burdens on businesses, which is wholesale blowing of sunshine up gullible patoots, to RomneyCare, which is at its very foundation intensely anti-capitalist.
2. "Would be supportive of the military." Wrong again, he is party to its sabotage. He believes in forcing Americans, young men, young women, in the military to accept open homosexuality within the ranks where they serve, and in punishing then if they object.
Romney is as much an enemy of freedom and morality as Obama. It's why he lost, and it's why I'm grateful he lost.
Finally - an intelligent rundown of “the Romney issues”. You put it very well - I was expecting some of the usual, “he’s the spawn of the devil” responses. Thanks for the breakdown.