He made huge tactical errors — from not responding to Obama’s devastating personal attacks all summer to letting Obama harness the power of data like a Bain Capital numbers-cruncher while Romney’s data-mining effort crashed and burned like, well, Solyndra.

But he what ultimately cost Romney the election was a lack of vision — a flaw that is uncorrectable. Romney had changed positions so often over his career that by 2012 no one knew what he really believed.

Because he presented such a blank canvas, Romney allowed Obama to paint him as an unacceptable alternative. Indeed, he often took the brush in his own hands and did Obama’s job for him. Like when he told auto workers his wife “drives a couple of Cadillacs” . . . or described himself as “severely conservative” (something no actual conservative would say) . . . or declared that “corporations are people, my friend” . . . or offered to bet Texas Gov. Rick Perry “10 thousand bucks” . . . or said “I like being able to fire people” . . . or declared his immigration policy was “self-deportation” . . . or announced “I’m not concerned about the very poor” . . . or dismissed 47 percent of the country as a bunch of moochers “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.”