[x]

This has to be supplemented with “How Gingrich could (or could not) have won the popular vote,” “How Santorum could (or could not) have won the popular vote,” “How Bachmann could (or could not) have won the popular vote,” “How Perry could (or could not) have won the popular vote,” and “How Cain could (or could not) have won the popular vote,” to get a fuller picture. Romney was a poor candidate, but was there really a candidate out there who could have done better?

[Verginius Rufus]

Considering the skill and energy with which the Obama campaign demonized Romney's character, if Gingrich had been the nominee the whole campaign would have been about his personal failings. The country would have known every detail of everything he had ever done wrong in any of his marriages (plus a lot of made-up details that the public would accept as true). The debate moderators would have managed to let Obama get in a lot of reminders. By election day Clinton would have been a Cub Scout compared to the MSM-informed voter's impression of Gingrich.

With all of his shortcomings, I think Romney did better than any of the other candidates would have done. What was needed was a conservative who could actually win--that wasn't Bachmann or Perry or Santorum or Pawlenty or Cain or Gingrich. Santorum joined the lynch mob going after George Zimmerman (that won't have any impact on the outcome of the trial but it doesn't show good judgment).

[SoConPubbie]

Romney was a poor candidate, but was there really a candidate out there who could have done better?

Any of those conservative candidates you mentioned would have clearly declared the differences between Obama's failed socialistic policies and the conservative policy positions they supported, Romney didn't.

All of those conservative candidates would have never supported Abortion or the Gay Agenda like Romney did AFTER he won the nomination.

Each of those conservative candidates, if they had not been defeated by a completely flawed primary system and the LIES and money of Romney, would have trounced Obama, precisely for the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph.

You are parroting the false, and failed talking points of that creep Rove and the GOP-e.