Romney foolishly attempted to placate the dominant, extremists forces that call the shots in the GOP in order to get the nomination. They agreed to a marriage of convenience, but the American people annulled that marriage last Tuesday.
If Romney had any brains, he would have taken a moderate stand on the issues, particularly social issues and women's issues, and stayed the course with outlines of his positions including details. His "I have a plan and I'll let yu know what it is after I'm elected" did not sit well with folks who wanted to vote intelligently.
He had some real bad advice. He changed positions too many times, he did not dispute the extremists viewpoints (that lost him a lot of support), he was insulting to a large number of Americans, and he flat out lied. His arrogance got him shellacked.
Romney foolishly attempted to placate the dominant, extremists forces that call the shots in the GOP in order to get the nomination. They agreed to a marriage of convenience, but the American people annulled that marriage last Tuesday.
Vrede wrote:I'm not sure that Mitten had a choice. To win the nomination he had to placate the GOP extremists ....
Well, Mitten certainly seemed to believe that. I, on the other hand, do not. Throughout the primary, the hard right never liked him anyway and kept on voting in obscenely large numbers for Santorum and the rest of the dwarfs. I would contend that Romney was better organized than the rest, had more funding than most, and was less fatally flawed than any of the others. I think that of the ones running in the primaries, Romney was the only one who had any chance of competing nationally long enough to get enough states to win. He could have been "Governor Romney" from the first and, although receiving no love from the rightest of the right, would have still won enough. I'm glad he didn't, though. Doing that would have made him a lot harder to beat in the general, but ultimately it wasn't Romney himself or Romney the candidate who lost it for them.
I have been listening to a lot of pundits and trying to decide exactly why Romney did not win. One thing is there were a lot fewer Repunlican votes than in 2008 which is quite a surprise. However, it seems that Gary Johnson received about one million votes and the great majority of those would normally go to Romney. However, the big number is supposed Ron Paul supporters who stayed home. I have never been a Paul supporter and I feel he has done more harm than good for the GOP. Finally, and this is just a guess on my part, I believe there were a significant number of evangelicals who also stayed home because Romney is a Mormon. Put all this together and it adds up to a loss for Romney.
Supsalemgr wrote:I have been listening to a lot of pundits and trying to decide exactly why Romney did not win. One thing is there were a lot fewer Repunlican votes than in 2008 which is quite a surprise. However, it seems that Gary Johnson received about one million votes and the great majority of those would normally go to Romney. However, the big number is supposed Ron Paul supporters who stayed home. I have never been a Paul supporter and I feel he has done more harm than good for the GOP. Finally, and this is just a guess on my part, I believe there were a significant number of evangelicals who also stayed home because Romney is a Mormon. Put all this together and it adds up to a loss for Romney.
Romney also never provided his birth certificate or taxes.
Vrede wrote:O Really, I think Mitten remembered that Huckabee cost him the 2008 nomination. Mr. "Severely Conservative" did not have to placate all the GOP extremists, just enough of them.
Supsalemgr, I largely agree with your analysis. However, a more right Mitten getting those voters likely would have disaffected more moderate Independents and Republicans. The GOP's problem is that an intolerant rich white male base will never again be enough to win.
I can understand the Johnson deal as there are just some folks who feel as they do. What I don't understand are the other two groups who shot themselves in the foot by staying at home. I have had to hold my nose and vote from time to time (McCain).
I'd agree that Super-S's factors probably had an effect, but bottom line the Republican campaign "severely" overestimated the degree to which Dems and the component groups were unhappy with Obama. Some of us here in this forum kept saying "we'll complain about him for what we disagree with, but we're not going to stay home or vote Republican. Republicans on the other hand kept pointing out that everybody they knew hated Obama and that, for example, only 60% of blacks in NC were voting Dem and that they were bailing in droves over same-sex marriage. And that theory worked out how? They had the wrong theories, the wrong campaign, the wrong pollsters. The only thing they did get right was their candidate and they ruined him.
Vrede wrote:O Really, I think Mitten remembered that Huckabee cost him the 2008 nomination. Mr. "Severely Conservative" did not have to placate all the GOP extremists, just enough of them.
Supsalemgr, I largely agree with your analysis. However, a more right Mitten getting those voters likely would have disaffected more moderate Independents and Republicans. The GOP's problem is that an intolerant rich white male base will never again be enough to win.
I can understand the Johnson deal as there are just some folks who feel as they do. What I don't understand are the other two groups who shot themselves in the foot by staying at home. I have had to hold my nose and vote from time to time (McCain).
I still can't imagine how anyone could have ever, under any circumstances, have voted for palin. just how much blinding hate does it take to put our country in that much danger? mcflipflopper was bad, but just imagine the wasilla idiot making state decisions
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
billy.pilgrim wrote:I still can't imagine how anyone could have ever, under any circumstances, have voted for palin. just how much blinding hate does it take to put our country in that much danger? mcflipflopper was bad, but just imagine the wasilla idiot making state decisions
That's easy enough. Faux, Limbaugh, Beck, Rove, Morris, Cheney and the rest of the right would defend everything she said or did, and explain why the resulting fiascos were all the Democrats' and the Liberal Media's fault.
One election later, Faux and the rest of the Repubican party would forget that she ever existed. Their trained parrots on the blogs and forums would take offense to any mention of her. "How dare you link the Republican choice for Vice President to the Republican Party! How dare you!"
Supsalemgr wrote: Finally, and this is just a guess on my part, I believe there were a significant number of evangelicals who also stayed home because Romney is a Mormon. Put all this together and it adds up to a loss for Romney.
Nope, the 'Gelicals hung in there. Did a little better than 2008.
Seventy-eight percent of white evangelical Christians went for Romney, according to exit poll results, up from 74 percent for the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. White evangelical Christians made up 26 percent of the electorate this year, as they did in 2008.
Dryer Vent wrote:If Romney had any brains, he would have taken a moderate stand on the issues
He would never have gotten a primary victory. Teanuts and other right-wing extremists rule the Republican primaries which is why you had flavors-of-the-month like Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, etc. And most of those loons keep saying, "We lost because we didn't nominate a real conservative. We nominated a RINO."
Personally, I'm hoping for Palin/Bachmann or Palin/West or some other permutation of batshit crazy in 2016.
Mittman was a moderate then a conservative, and then a moderate, and then a conservative.
You get the idea. The GOP will be back, though it might take a while.
As I mentioned before, these days it's one shot and if you lose, you're out. In the "old days"
the loser occasionally got a second chance. After running for the nomination twice, I think
Mitt might not want to try for a third time. I doubt he'll be running again in 2016. Who knows
why McCain made the lamebrain decision to pick Palin. Maybe it was the total surprise factor.
2008 was probably going to be a Democratic year anyway, due to Bush (and thus Republican)
fatigue. The right wingers are already talking about the upcoming stars who might try for
the nomination in 2016.