The conservative blogs are locking in on the fact Tagg Romney said his dad really didn't want to be President. That revelation seems relativley small potatoes compared with the rest of what you learn from this piece. For all the strategic gaffes outlined here the failure to stop Team Obama from defining Romney early on is the biggest. I was in the convention hall in Tampa when speakers nobody else in America was seeing came onstage to tell the story of the generous, kind, compassionate Mitt Romney. I remember reporters around me and people on Twitter asking; "where the hell have these people been, and why are you now hiding them before prime time and instead featuring a rambling Clint Eastwood?

The conservative pundisphere seemed to have a sense of what was unfolding in August and September when they all but called for Romney to replace Stuart Stevens. But the essence of this story is by then it was too late; the early Obama money had defnined Romney and that image had become indelible by that point. It's really this simple; not being Barack Obama wasn't enough, the same way not being Scott Walker wasn't enough for Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin recall in June. This is a critically important lesson to be learned.