1. Virulently hostile media.
2. Lies from Axelrod's Chicago whores.
3. Intelligent play by the RNC, who apparently got billionaires to lure one conservative candidate after another into the race, until there were too many.
One FR poster asserted, on what information I don't know, that plutocrat Foster Friess lured Rick Santorum into the race with promises of financial support -- and then dumped Santorum as soon as it became apparent that Newt Gingrich, which it was Friess's ascribed ambition to defeat, dropped out of the race. Then Friess dumped Santorum before a critical round of primaries -- because Friess and the rest of the Plutocracy wanted Romney to get the nomination all along. Thus posted our FRiend.
Gingrich and Santorum were both supported by one or two people -- Gingrich by Adelson. That isn't healthy; there isn't enough money anymore available from small contributors to sustain more than one challenger to the Plutocrats.
Another way of saying this is, the Plutocrats have successfully priced democracy out of Republican politics, and have deliberately deprived the People of any chance to select their own candidate.
The People no longer have any say in politics. The Communists own the Democratic Party, and the would-be Slavemasters of the Earth own the Republican.
Why should anyone be CARING about “virulently hostile media” is the really sad thing to me. It’s plain it does have lots of influence, but the excuse for not being able to find out something for yourself, or at least to view each candidate’s own self promotional material, is rapidly going away with the internet. An internet upon which you can view what you want, when you want, rather than obediently waiting for your infotainment to be scheduled like a kid waiting for a lollipop from Mom.