I think Romney lost for the following combination of reasons, in no particular order:
1. The media has been covering for Obama for four years. When Bush was in office, the MSM was frantic in its search for scandal, even to the point of trying to make a scandal out of Bush’s Thanksgiving turkey photo op, and creating the infamous “Plamegate” out of thin air. With Obama, however, the MSM runs away from potential scandal. All of this is probably worth about 2 percentage points to Obama.
2. The Mormon thing. I think some evangelicals stayed away because they don’t like or trust Mormonism. Many liberals, of course, don’t either, but they weren’t potential Romney voters. This probably cost Romney something like one-fourth of one-percent of his potential vote.
3. Gaffes - Republican gaffes become front-page news, Democratic gaffes do not. The rape and abortion gaffes by Republican senatorial candidates splattered Romney with friendly-fire schrapnel. Biden’s almost-daily gaffes were ignored. The net effect of this probably cost 1 percent or so.
4. The war-on-women. Absurd as it was, it does affect the voting behavior of non-political women, who hear it in the wind, think there might be something to it, and vote accordingly. Another 1-2 points lost for Romney.
5. The Wars. America is war-weary, and even the slightest hint of Republican militarism, e.g., of a “hot” conflict with Iran, will scare away some voters. Take away another one-half percent from Romney.
6. Romney blunders. The 47% comment and one or two others got him a lot of bad press. These unforced errors probably cost him another one-fourth to one-half percent.
7. The “we can’t reject the first black president” syndrome. White guilt about having voted for Obama and then possibly rejecting him probably induced some to vote for Obama despite misgivings. Another one-fourth point lost.
If these factors had not been present, Romney could have overcome the demographic factors that militated against him.
They didn't find him "pure" enough.
These people are like the Perot voters who got us 8 years of Clinton. If all these types had voted we would have had neither Clinton nor Obama.
These purists are pure idiots.
White guilt. We cannot not applaud lousy black performer, we cannot not laugh at an unfunny black comic, we must precede Thomas Sowell’s name with a “Dr” while posting on Free Republic, we cannot vote against that nice black man, so we won’t vote at all. We are afraid that someone will call us ‘RASSISS’ on Free Republic!
It’s easy to figure out.
Did the same thing in 2008.