Is Romney viewed (essentially) as a "generic Republican right now"?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

A lot of us have been paying attention to the election and wondering to ourselves, how the hell can this election be this close? I think that most of understand that President Obama is somewhat disadvantaged by the economy but how can people want to elect Romney POTUS in light of his past and the policies he claims to support as POTUS? Is it possible that most people have no clue about who he is and what he stands for and simply view him as just "the Republican opponent" and are supporting him mainly because things are bad (which they are) and are simply grasping for an alternative without even really realizing what Romney stands for? Or, in other words, is Romney the "generic Republican" that seemed to be polling well during the GOP primaries?

Edit to add: This was inspired by this post I found by Daily Kos and suggests the need for better defining of Romney by the Obama campaign (which is what they're now engaged in, of course): http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/19/1111710/-The-Obama-Strategy-Bain-Softens-Up-Romney-For-The-Real-Blow-the-Ryan-Budget

[elleng]

1. A good supposition, I think;

rmoney is not 'the other,' that 'you know' guy, and he's rich so he MUST know something about the way to do things.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. A generic Republican would be 10 points ahead

The reason Romney isn't, is that actual Republicans are far less popular than generic Republicans.

[Generic Brad]

3. If he's a generic republican, then I'm a generic "Brad"

Nuff said.

[Amonester]

4. "without even really realizing"

that Jobs Destroyer Rmoney would be the final nail in the coffin for the economy?

Yep. Without even realizing that, because they're too busy following the infotainment "news" between working three low-paying jobs