How could Romney have won in 2012?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I will agree that that might have made it more difficult for Romney to win, but I think he had the opportunity to take a few specific actions that might have turned the needle in his favour.

For one, I think he should have realized that he didn't need to outflank anyone on immigration in the primaries. At the end of the day, his opponents were a bunch of fools, and Romney was going to win the nomination. Had he won it a little more cleanly, I think he could have at least bagged Florida.

I also think it was a bit silly for him to commit early to a tax plan that simply didn't work. He really botched that one. If the goal was to lay out the principles for tax reform and admit that he was willing to give and take a little in an exhibition of bipartisan compromise, he should've just come out and said it.

Secondly, he let Obama define him early and made the decision that a "final push" ad blitz in the fall would be more effective. It wasn't. I don't know exactly how the fundraising/money rules work, but I think he could have found a way to introduce himself a lot better to the American people.

Thirdly, we've got the issue of his tax returns. I'm sorry, but he should have known that they would be a problem and released a bunch of stuff much earlier. Unless, of course, there were some big no-nos in there, but I'm in the camp that actually thinks Romney is an upstanding person and probably didn't have too much to worry about if he'd just gotten them out of the way earlier.

Finally, I think he could have made a more inspiring choice for vice president. Paul Ryan didn't do any harm in terms of raw votes (I don't think), but the choice of Ryan did play into Obama's attacks on Romney and may have blunted the governor's message. Obama now had fodder for his argument that Romney was a regressive, far-right candidate. Instead, Romney should have selected someone who at the very least would have allowed him to continue casting the race as a referendum on the president's tenure. At the very most, he could've chosen a more sensational pick like Ayotte or Martinez or Rubio or Sandoval. The risk of Palin comparisons would be there for any female candidate he chose, but the reward could've been high.

Anyway, there's my answer. 2012 was winnable for Romney, but I have to agree that he just botched the whole thing (aside from maybe the first GE debate, but that was the exception and not the rule).