Hate is a strong word. Bush in 1992, Dole in 1996, and McCain in 2008 all did worse than Romney in the midwest. So the posters in here saying it was because of his plutocrat image are overthinking it.
tl;dr his performance there wasn't bad but average, and average doesn't cut it for Republicans.
92 Bush did better in the swing/swingy of the Midwestern states : OH, MI, WI and barely did worse in IA
Only marginally in the two party vote. Romney probably did a little bit better than George HW Bush with the white vote in the midwest even if you subtract Illinois.
Also Missouri is a semi-midwestern state, and Romney did well there.
