Not really comparable. Romney wasn’t challenging a long-time incumbent. For all intents and purposes, Romney was running unopposed, with votes for others merely to ‘make a statement.’
Basically, while I don’t trust Romney’s “real opinions”...if he even has any...it makes more sense to go vote for him, then vote in the most conservative Govt you can, and then keep the pressure on Romney to at least veto the insanity that even a GOP congress is passing.
Romney will want to win again in 2016, so that is the key pressure point from the right. Even creating a holding pattern is a win IF people will get off their butts and start voting right in local, state and congressional races.
Much like Bill Clinton, Romney will tack wherever he needs to...unlike Obama. So in that sense he can be a movable object.
I am a little more hopeful of that with Romney than I would have been with McCain..who is just a dipstick. Romney is a dipstick that can be....shaped.
Far from perfect, but his binary (at least in illusion) choice system we have is what it is.
The key is to survive Executive idiocy while pushing the congress to the right in 2012, 2014 and 2016..which will push Romney Right.