Four more years, four more years! Come on righties, say it with me!! Although it was touch and go for awhile, President Obama managed to defeat Mitt Romney. Although it wasn't a blow out, I thought the electoral college tally would be closer than it was.
Outside of the obvious, I can understand why righties are pissed off because President Obama was beatable. Even though I think the president deserved a 2nd term, this was a winnable election for the GOP.
Here are some of the reasons I think Romney lost:
- Alienating Hispanic voters, the fastest growing demographic in the country. The number of Latinos who voted for President Obama in the 2012 election was over 70%, while Romney got less than 30%! Unless Republicans want to keep losing presidential elections, they better come up with a new game plan to woo Latino voters.
- Four words... Let Detroit Go Bankrupt. Although Romney didn't choose the title of the op-ed, he echoed its sentiments. The fact that President Obama saved the auto industry while Romney was content to kiss it off virtually guaranteed that Michigan and Ohio would go to O.
- 47%... need I say more?!
Besides the obvious, there are two other reasons I'm glad President Obama won a 2nd term. Had Romney won, it would give license for future candidates to constantly change positions and brazenly lie about it. Romney went back and forth and back so much, he probably lost track of which "Mitt was Mitt" himself! An Obama defeat would also have sent a message to the GOP that obstruction is a winning strategy. Since there is work to be done to get this country back on track, being the "party of NO" isn't going to cut it.
Hopefully, the GOP will do some serious soul searching and get their act together. If they don't, this could prove to be the beginning of the end for them. Since right-wing pundits and bloggers aren't likely to realize that moving farther to the right is not the way to go, it'll be up to one of the GOP politicians to take the reins and be the proverbial adult in the room.
While the right stews in its own juice, please enjoy President Obama's victory speech.
9 comments:
What a relief! That was stil too close for comfort, and the Tea Party still infects Congress.
Your assessment of reasons Romney lost are on target. His great lie about Jeep sending Ohio jobs to China was the final straw that broke Mitt's back.
Wiil they learn not to lie? No. They need to lie in order to win.
Yes indeed!!! I went to a public place the morning after and you could hear a pin drop. Texas is a big red state, just like California is a big blue one. Those states never change. That's why I didn't get discourage when I saw all of the red because I knew the state with the most electoral votes had not been counted. Popular vote does not mean a thing, it was never really close at all :-)
Got here a little late to say Yay! But you know how I feel about this.
We've got a good man leading this country. I was a bit nervous for a few weeks, then I read Nate Silver every day and realized we'd be just fine. Science beat the crap out of the rightwing pundits who were all wrong!
BTW, we're all happy here in Boston. Yay Elizabeth!
Your claim on Detroit needs challenging. Obama did not "save" the auto industry with his wasteful tens of billions of dollars in corporate welfare The alternative bankruptcy that Romney favored would have preserved the auto industry, but at $0 expense to the taxpayers. Any traction Obama got on this was a victory for the very bad idea of corporate welfare: something Dems now tend to favor strongly, and Republicans oppose strongly.
You are are right about the Hispanics though. If Romney had not made the self-deportation gaffe), and if he has focused on them and their needs, he might have gotten 10-15% more of the Hispanic vote. Still a minority of them... but that would have been enough for him to win the election. The roughly 50-50% split is so close.
"Had Romney won, it would give license for future candidates to constantly change positions and brazenly lie about it."
Another candidate who brazenly changed positions and lied about it did win. Remember Obama's promise to free the terrorists at Gitmo? His promise to veto earmarks? And there are plenty of others. He was no different from Romney in this regard.
"Hopefully, the GOP will do some serious soul searching and get their act together."
The GOP really does not have to change much at all. They are very successful when it comes to House races, and governorships (two of four major national election considerations). When Romney was just a couple of gaffes away from being the winner, it's clear that there is no mandate against the GOP, and no need to change anything except get a candidate in 2016 who doesn't make these gaffes.
As for Romney's China "lie", he just got the country wrong. Obama's Chrysler is shipping Ohio Jeep jobs to Italy, not China.
Your reasons for Romney losing may all be valid, but I think he lost because he was the last man standing out of a field of Republican candidates that nobody really cared for in the 1st place. He was doomed to lose right from the beginning.
Plus even though he pointed out all of the things that he thought were wrong with the president, some of which I actually agree with, he failed to say how his Administration would do anything differently other than provide more protection for those who had already gained the most. His only vision was to tear down what Obama had done and replace it with nothing but more pledges for the rich.
Dave: I was a little nervous until I saw that President Obama took PA. I threw this post together rather quickly because I easily could have done a top 20 list of reasons Romney lost. One thing I didn't make clear in the post is the fact that President Obama and his team are one of the primary reasons Romney lost. They ran a superb campaign!
Pam: All that red didn't worry me, but I was still concerned about some of the swing states. I wish I could have been in Texas the day after the election!
Shaw: I was mostly worried after the first debate. Nate Silver's predictions (along with the numerous reliable polls) made me feel a bit better. Speaking of Nate, his stock should go way up because of his number crunching. He's basically the anti-Dick Morris.
I too was pleased to see Elizabeth Warren beat Scott Brown. I think she'll do great things in DC.
dmarks: What are you talking about?! The auto industry is still around thanks to President Obama. Here are some facts for you to chew on from the non-partisan FactCheck.org site:
http://factcheck.org/2012/10/romney-distorts-facts-on-jeep-auto-bailout/
Romney wanted the private sector to finance the rescue of the auto industry. The link below spells out why that wouldn't have worked:
http://thinkprogress.org/tag/automobile-industry/?mobile=nc
Also, the link you included mentions nothing about Ohio Jeep jobs going to Italy. What the article says is that "Fiat is now considering moving Chrysler and Jeep production to Italy.". This doesn't mean Ohio workers are losing their jobs to Italy.
Your attempt to compare Romney's massive flip-flopping to President Obama is weak sauce. Although President Obama's promise to close Gitmo hasn't been fulfilled and likely won't be, that doesn't mean he lied about his intentions. The link below explains why the president can't close Gitmo:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/15/why-obama-cant-close-guantanamo/
I have no issue with politicians changing positions. However, the clip below illustrates how Mitt Romney is in a class all by himself when it comes to flip-flopping and lying about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhfmvuPHkZI
Curious: Solid take as usual! As I said to Dave below, I put this post together in a Rush. I wish I had more time because I could have listed countless reasons why Romney lost. The reason you mentioned would definitely had been on the list. The GOP should be ashamed of themselves for fielding that motley crew of presidential candidates! Mitt practically won by default.
Sorry, Malcolm, but when a company moves production from the US to another country, that means they are moving jobs. That's how it works in industry.
And here yet another example of Obama's purely unnecessary massive corporate welfare gift to these auto companies being used to ship American jobs to another country:
click here
Pamela D. Hart, 2010.
No it doesn't dmarks. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
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