Mitt Romney is the former Massachusetts Governor and Saviour of 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics and probably least understood of all candidates. Massachusetts is very much a liberal blue state and he managed to get elected as Governor for one term before leaving office to run for president.
He ran there on a platform including being pro-choice and presiding over a lecture to be the only state in the nation to legislate same sex marriage. He has since completely reversed those positions so as not to offend the Republican base. He also introduce the only universal health care plan in the nation for the state which he rarely mentions as republican base associates this as socialized medicine which makes US to much like a Western Europe and thus ever closer to Communism or Nanny State.
He is a well respected business person and self made multi millionaire and would run his administration very like a business and has successfully solved problems like health using this approach. Is the only major republican candidate who is still with first wife and is very much a family man so really of all the Republican candidates he is the only one who can talk about religion and not be hypocritical about it.
Mitt had to do a JFK style speech to convince Republican base that Mormonism should not be an issue as many in base still view it as a cult (JFK had to do similar thing in 1960 to convince voters that him being a Catholic wasn’t an issue). However while he is not hypocritical and genuine about his religion, family and business, he has been completely hypocritical and opportunistic about other issues as mentioned earlier between his Governor days and now Presidential candidate.
He did lose a Senate race to Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts in mid 90s. As a former Governor history is on his side as most former presidents were Governors. (In fact JFK was the last president who wasn’t a Governor or Vice President)