I'm not going to sit here and say Romney's going to be the next President - Obama has at least a 45% against him right now. But Romney is the only GOP candidate who would have a competitive race against Obama if the economy is roughly the same. Just like any other candidate, he'd probably lose if we had an economic boom (though not as badly). However, if the economy gets worse, Romney would have a pretty solid chance of winning the White House. If economic conditions decline with any other GOP candidate, this race goes from lean-Obama to toss-up.
If Mitt Romney is the GOP's only real hope in 2012, then, for the first time, I'm really sorry for this party.