Mitt Romney was a straw man for Obama to beat up on...

Mitt Romeny isn't a republican. He doesn't believe or support a limited federal governemtn or a conservative monetary policy.

Mitt Romney only takes postions on moral issues when there is an obvious political advantage.

Mitt Romney wanted to go back to the end of G.W. Bush years as president, a point of obvious decline for USA.

Mitt Romney's stance against government bailouts, Obamacare and Obama's foriegn policy were all extremely hypocritical because he would have bailed out the banks as many of his supporters did; he was the architect of Obamacare in Massachusetts and he ultimately agreed that Obama was doing the right things in foriegn policy only not as pronounced as he would do it.

Ultimately Romney provided Obama with the perfect opponent against whom he would appear a tiny bit better then to make his ultimate victory appear plausible.

methinks it worked.