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I think Romney will be a strong contender in 2012 if McCain loses, just as he was a strong contender this year. As sad as it is, Romney battled name recognition even when he was the co-frontrunner. He'll retain a core that no other candidate will likely have, and his CPAC speech this year was a great start (many would argue the best of the campaign, and one of the better political speeches of the last decade).
I think the second time around is always dicey, but he'll have much more institutional support from the beginning next time. He'd also be following in the wake of a huge blow for the GOP (putting up a moderate few were excited about AND losing to boot), and he is certainly the biggest visionary among current party leaders. It will be interesting to see what he does in the meantime.
I also don't think he'd be a failure as a candidate in a future general. Hell, he's probably by far the best suited to take on Hillary or Obama head to head in substantive issues and in style points. Unfortunately the GOP didn't recognize that this time, but I think Romney will grow into a more familiar figure over the next four years, and there will be much less initial resistance to his candidacy. We shall see.
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