I´m thinking "lessons learned" in election 2012 is massive election voter fraud by the DemocRATS. We learned that 53 or was it 59 voter precincts in Philadelphia did not show one single vote for Romney? Also until we can quash the big DemocRAT lie that voter ID is an attempt by the Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters we will never be able to get honest elections. In effect, they are saying "The Racist Republicans want to disenfranchise black voters using Voter ID". This lie is spread all around large urban areas with mostly black populations.
The despicable DemocRATS started this lie in earnest during and after the 2000 vote in Florida. We cannot let them get away with this big lie.

What a doofus this writer is - Mitt was a great candidate and would have made a great president unlike the flapeared donkey that the idiots voted for. The only good thing that will happen for these loser voters is that they will ave to live with the prez and his spending and tax raising. Hope all that voted for him will be so delighted with mr. flapears.

Vote fraud was a major contributor.

Also, free advertising in the form of a sympathetic MSM. Illegal foreign contributions, particularly from China.

Mitt never effectively combated all the negative advertising. In our area the negative ads ran for 6 months straight. Sometimes there were multiple negative ads back-to-to-back on TV. He should have pointed out that Obama is a [Blankety-BLank] liar during the first debate.

Prove everything you said, Mr. Kohut, and not with some rigged poll. We just don´t believe you anymore.

The WSJ used to at least pretend to be somewhat objective.

That wasn´t a "weak candidate" I saw destroy Obama in that first debate. Unfortunately, after that...he should have kept the gloves off.

The sooner establishment republicans acknowledge that they have again pinned their hopes to a lousy candidate, the sooner the healing will start.

No. 4, Santorum and Gingrich drained Romney´s money dry and after defeating them he had nothing with which to fight for six months. Since they never had a chance to get the nomination due to not being on the ballots of some states and counties, they had no business throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery and their supporters should have understood the futility and not encouraged their folly.

All this author is saying is that Obama and the media were successful in their hatchet job on Romney and that the media was especially successful in protecting Obama from his record.

Another blue-blood Ivy League Country Club Republican will go down again. And again. And again.
The Skulls and Bones set will never win again.
If we keep sending them up, even dirtbags like Obama will defeat them.
Until we get the idea-someone like Sarah would have been better. Our base would have been secure. The fools that vote the ´Firsts´ would have been attracted.
We keep producing these weak candidates and then are surprised at the result.

Then there is the Republican GOTV infrastructure which was swamped by the competence of Axelrod and Co.
Our side tried out a Beta product on Election day and it crashed.
The Democrats had three secret dress rehearsals the previous three weekends prior to the Election, and theirs worked beautifully. To our chagrin.
Throw in a couple cups of voter fraud and you have the reason the Rats won- again.

Agree w/ #8 that Santorum, who could not even win in his own state, made a vanity run. I fear that he was only encouraged to think that he could win in 2016 by making a few changes to his campaign staff. Gingrich is a bit in this category also, in that his unfavorables could not be overcome with the GOP primary voters.

The next set of candidates had better have a spouse with nerves of steel because the Dems have learned how to destroy candidates by threatening their families, like they did with Cain. They are doing the same thing with Petraeus and Allen right now. They had better start right now, with good accountants, lawyers, investment advisors, and technology experts cleaning up and sanitizing every little detail.

Mitt was a very good candidate and certainly the most electable among those GOPers who sought the job during the primaries. In fact, I think that he was our only shot at retaking the White House. Would Jeb Bush been the better choice? Maybe if he had changed his last name. Should we have run Clint Eastwood?

If Mitt was weak it was only because he staggered out of the most brutal (and pointless) primary in my memory.

It wasn´t the democrats that took out Cain. A valuable voice and asset was destroyed by a well funded by mediocre candidate.

I´m with posters #8 & 12. Mitt was a the best and most electable of the available candidates. Two myopic and tin-eared egotists named Santorum and Gingrich hurt him. I´d be willing to wager that neither one of them is displeased with Obama´s re-election.

And Cain? Palin? It must be fun to live in a fantasy word.

Yup. Those independents in the middle sure turned out for the most electable.
We´ll have to do this again next time. It works so well.

The fact that Romney needed to spend $15 million in attack ads to beat Gingrich in Florida should tell you something. Mitt got the primary campaign he sought: personal and negative. Romney´s strategy was to render each potential rival unacceptable through attack ads and adroitly-placed opposition research. It worked, but it cost him, and not just in monetary terms: Romney´s national favorable/unfavorable poll numbers plummeted during Florida BEFORE Gingrich´s own negative ads started running. They never fully recovered. As I pointed out at the time, no nominee has ever won the presidency with favorability numbers that bad. Romney destroyed himself before Obama spent a dollar against him. Then Mitt´s excellent acceptance speech was wiped off the front pages by Clint´s little chair chat, and his campaign´s over-reliance on bad polling assumptions left him standing pat on a non-existent lead in the final weeks. Team Romney insiders declared key swing states "baked" and sent Mitt chasing votes in Pennsylvania. It was a bad campaign, badly run. Mitt Romney is a good man who might have been a fine president if he hadn´t hired such lousy campaign operatives and listened to so many delusional advisers.

A lot of people, including me, would like to know who the all-powerful Republican "elite" are. Name me some names. They have produced such losers as Dole, McCain and Romney, ever in search of the elusive Independant voter. It would be helpful to toss them overboard as we´ll as the actual politicians. How do we get control of the guys who control the party?