Romney is a moderate. He'd do fine with the middle, in my opinion.
but will the base show up to vote?
18% of 2004 republican voters stayed home - didn't vote - in 2008. They didn't want the moderate mccain, and the trigger happy, moose hunter palin didn't help with that.
Romney is arguably way worse than mccain in terms of being flip flopper, liberal, etc. If a far-right VP didn't help Mccain, why would it help romney?