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).
We can sit and bash Romney, cheer Palin, delude ourselves that Allen West can win the Presidency, etc.
By 2016 though we have to solve these problems.
1) We no longer have an electoral strategy. CO, VA, NM are likely gone for good. VA, FL and NC may be gone for now.
2) Remember how for decades the Dems would always claim they had the majority, but the poor didn’t get out vote, so the GOP would win? Well, with early voting laws, the Dems now have 2-4 weeks to drag all those people to the polls. They don’t have to try and do it all in one day.
3) The WWII generation is dead. All those hard working, family oriented white folks are who voted from 1980 through 2004 are now generally deceased. We’ve lost those voters.
4) Most youth under the age of 30 have no ties to the values of the WWII generation. They may not have even grown up in a two parent household. They support if not endorse the gay lifestyle and single parents. This block was too young to vote in 2004 but they showed up in 2012 and will be there in 2016. Jim Demint doesn’t appeal to them.
So there you have it. Solve the problems above and we get the White House back. Otherwise we can only hope to hang onto the House for another ten years.