Any candidate was more formidable than Romney. There are very few candidates in presidential primary history who it was possible to make a 20-minute mini-movie about starring willing participants railing against him for ruining their lives with layoffs, pay cuts, outsourcing, etc. It doesn’t matter how conservative Mitt Romney was, no Republican with a brain in their head should have thought Romney could overcome the Bain baggage previewed by Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich in the primary, especially knowing it already killed Romney’s earlier campaign for Senate by gigantic proportions.
I agree, if you lost your last election, you should not be running for President.