It is easy to state, as many here do, that Romney was wired for the nomination by the scoundrels of the GOP-elite.
It is much harder to identify the solid conservative candidate that we would all have rallied behind had not the GOP-e evildoers done their dirty.
Politics is all about power. You will *always* have very powerful opposition that requires skill and unity to defeat.
As you imply, the problem this time was the field of nonRomneys and/or the failure to unite behind one of them. Romney, and whatever elites support him, could have been beat had this not been the case.