Romney's candidacy improved as months went on
Romney unable to make Americans love him, but became a plausible candidate and potential president near campaign's end
In July, a woman in West Virginia asked Republican house leader, John Boehner: "Can you make me love Mitt Romney?"
Boehner said: "No. Listen, we're just politicians. I wasn't elected to play God. The American people probably aren't going to fall in love with Mitt Romney."
But that didn't stop Romney's handlers trying. They used his wife, Ann, to soften him, invoked his Mormon religion to humanise him and even called on Clint Eastwood to vouch for him, but in the end Boehner was right. The American people were never going to fall in love with Romney.
Indeed, he could barely get his own party to fall in love with him. Even his running mate, Paul Ryan, waited until the primaries were nearly over and his nomination was inevitable, to offer an underwhelming endorsement: "I think we're entering a phase where it could become counterproductive if this drags on much longer, so that's why I think we have to coalesce as conservatives around Mitt Romney."
Luckily for Romney Americans didn't have to love him. In the six years he's been running for the president he's been reintroduced to the public several times to no avail.
But when it came down to it, the public needed just 90 minutes during the first televised debate to change its mind.