Romney used manipulation of the rules in key primary states, backstabbed others, and infiltrated the McCsin/Palin campaign in the *prior* election to neutralize Sarah.
Perry is not a conservative (e.g. Gardasil).
Even with all that, it was the mushy middle that didn't go for Romney: "binders full of women" and not going for the jugular in the third debate with the Bamster.
Perry is a conservative but he had dropped out fairly early on. That wasn’t the split at the end I was referring to which was Sanctorum & Newt splitting the vote and handing it to Romney. Sure there’s the MSM and power politics and lots of people & things to blame but when the conservative vote itself is fractured it doesn’t really matter. There’s no way to win. It is simple math. Until conservatives can unite they cannot defeat the RNC-e which is the first hurdle.