Against despair
The fact that Barack Obama was reelected and how he was reelected, can only be seen as dispiriting news for conservatives.
That Mitt Romney got fewer votes than John McCain is dismaying on any number of levels. We were told, by strategists and by what seemed like common sense, that the McCain coalition was a floor for Romney to build up from. The possibility that it was in fact a ceiling is pretty awful to contemplate. It is also pretty infuriating when you think about what the Romney campaign was telling us about their path to 270.
I’ll be blunt: I do not think Mitt Romney ran a good campaign. Don’t get me wrong, I think he worked his heart out as did many who worked for him. I think he made himself into the best candidate he could (which is different than saying he was a great candidate). But I also think that Romney’s theory of the contest was wrong. As I wrote at the time, the Republican convention was a mess. I think Romney strategist Stu Stevens’ contempt for ideas – never mind conservative ideas – was absurd. I think the failure of the Romney campaign to offer a compelling explanation of any kind (at least until the second debate) for how it wasn’t a third Bush term was fatal (as I discussed here and elsewhere). Politics is about persuasion. And persuasion requires making serious arguments. Stevens, by all accounts, has contempt for serious arguments.
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It’s impossible to prove a negative, so we can’t “prove” what would have happened had the federal government not taken in response to the financial crisis. But there is near-universal agreement that without major, major spending, the system would have locked up and crashed completely (liquidity is the oil of the economic engine). We haven’t seen the recovery we would like, but we’re getting there, and we very narrowly averted a major, major disaster. Just because the clean-up has been slower and more difficult than expected doesn’t mean we should put the people who made the mess back in charge. As for pre-crisis spending, let’s not pretend the Republicans were fiscal hawks under the Bush years. Both sides have a big, big problem, and we need rational people who can cooperate to lead us. The Republican party has been hijacked by Tea Partiers and social cons, which is a shame, because we need a strong counterpart to the Democratic party.
Alpha_Male on November 7, 2012 at 4:51 PM
McCain did better, in a worse situation. Romney didn’t clearly articulate his message. He’s a capitalist, but he didn’t want to defend capitalism. He’s a philanthropist, but he didn’t want to release his records. He had piles of money at his disposal, but didn’t know how or when to spend it.
Romney was on stage while Obama had one horrible debate performance. That was the high point of Romney’s campaign.
If Romney’s really a conservative, then he’ll accept that his fate was in his own hands. That his decisions, large and small, early and late, were what caused his failure. It’s liberals who blame others.
Is the media a problem? Sure. We’re aware of that. What did Romney do to counter them? Nothing. He could’ve run biographical ads, had business partners available for interviews, done big interviews.
Is the entitlement society a problem? Sure. But Romney seldom provided an alternative. He didn’t explain why capitalism is good and noble. He didn’t argue for a better way.
hawksruleva on November 7, 2012 at 4:52 PM
We need to look at 2008, 2010 and 2012 together to figure out where the country is. It seems to want Republicans in congress (2012 senate results were skewed by presidential turnout) and a democrat in the white house. That’s really not a bad thing for us. It means they want feel-good figurehead leadership, a strong hand on the checkbook and compromise (no, not capitulation. Compromise.) on national issues. the Tea Party fits into this picture rather well.
alwaysfiredup on November 7, 2012 at 4:54 PM
….The President himself came out and said the “shovel ready projects” weren’t even there.
We haven’t seen any recovery. Why would you even have the chutzpah to use the word recovery?
We have seen nothing but stagnation and uncertainty.
blatantblue on November 7, 2012 at 4:54 PM
Spending trillions and we have NOTHING to show for it.
The joke is on you, Alpha. Bet you were the type of kid that played the same carnival games over and over and never understood why you couldn’t win.
blatantblue on November 7, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Truth is, what happened during the Bush years no longer matters. The future is ahead of us. Bush made mistakes, Obama made a lot more. But fighting past battles won’t win the future.
We know small government and individual responsibility are good things. We need to share that message with voters in a positive, hopeful way.
hawksruleva on November 7, 2012 at 4:55 PM
You lost. Palin got 3 million more votes than Romney even before Obama turned out to be a mess. That points to a weakness in Romney’s campaign.
Had a socon been the candidate, you’d not hesitate to dump all over him. Deal with it.
alwaysfiredup on November 7, 2012 at 4:56 PM
I would rather read this than have to sit through untold hours of pundits on cable TV tonight.
The one talking head I care about is David Byrne.
Myron Falwell on November 7, 2012 at 4:57 PM
The strength of the GOP is the Tea Party. The Dems are very, very aware of this.
alwaysfiredup on November 7, 2012 at 4:57 PM
What Obama has learned is that the country is COMPUTERIZED. His staff used smartphone apps to track voter contacts. His campaign stayed in touch with people on Facebook and Twitter. They used computer programs to track their GOTV efforts.
At the end of the day, Obama’s ideas didn’t win. Exit polls show people prefer smaller government. They don’t like Obamacare. But Obama won because his organization got more voters to the polls. Were they all excited about it? No, but they voted, and that’s all that matters.
hawksruleva on November 7, 2012 at 4:59 PM
Looks like someone is drinking the beltway establishment coolaid…
idesign on November 7, 2012 at 5:01 PM
It also easier to GOTV when all of their voters are concentrated into small areas.
The Count on November 7, 2012 at 5:03 PM
That was actually supposed to be a campaign? Looked like “Rope a Dope” to me.
They ran a campaign the way the GOP Establishment Ayatollahs always do – impotently.
HondaV65 on November 7, 2012 at 5:04 PM
Spot on!!!
HondaV65 on November 7, 2012 at 5:06 PM
“Don’t Worry About the Government”
Two related questions, and I’m honestly not trying to be a jerk here, but since the falling Romney turnout is becoming a big part of the discussion:
1) Romney was always a compromise pick, at best, for most Republicans. Remember how long it took him to put away an alarmingly weak field, and how much he was mocked and dismissed here on Hot Air? Why is it surprising that — despite large and enthusiastic crowds — people didn’t turn out? (I did advance for Dukakis in ’88, I know how the enthusiasm of big crowds in the final days can be a bit hypnotic, but still…)
2) Any thought that Evangelicals just weren’t going to turn out for a Mormon?
urban elitist on November 7, 2012 at 5:07 PM
Just like they were in 2010. And what good has that done us in the two years since?
Right Mover on November 7, 2012 at 5:08 PM
FIFY
The Count on November 7, 2012 at 5:09 PM
True. But those small areas are, by and large, suffering. Until the GOP has a candidate who can convince the people of a dying city like Detroit that there’s a better life out there, we’ll continue to be a 46% (or less) party. It should be an easy task. Democrats have destroyed that great city, like they have so many others. People there survive on welfare and a hollow sense of superiority, built on lies.
But if you can get your message through, in that crowded space, it will spread like wildfire. People don’t want to suffer. They’re called to better lives. Californians are fleeing to Texas as surely as Mexicans are coming to America. We need to appeal to that yearning.
hawksruleva on November 7, 2012 at 5:26 PM
Supposedly Poison Palin still outperformed your Mr Electable at a time when Obama was still the Unknown Chicago Jesus.
ddrintn on November 7, 2012 at 5:48 PM
I see Jonah has taken a nap and is now making sense.
I agree with him here.
faraway on November 7, 2012 at 5:50 PM
Many of them like Democrats a lot more than they do conservatives.
sharrukin on November 7, 2012 at 5:55 PM
This. Unfortunately, we ‘learned’ this lesson last time.
faraway on November 7, 2012 at 6:01 PM
The election just barely tipped over to Obama, so it’s true that Romney nearly managed to win after all. So you have an excellent point. This is the one positive to take away.
But there’s no denying that Obama should have never been in the running. He absolutely failed on the economy, our credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in history — TWICE! — and he utterly failed to even pass a budget at any time in his administration.
So what do you call a complete failure like that? Mr. President.
tom on November 7, 2012 at 7:44 PM
The one big fault i had with Romney is that he did hit Obama hard on Libya..this is a major freaking scandal that the MSM has totally ignored..he really screwed up in the third election by not destroying Obama with that…i’m still so depressed today..just hard to believe that the American people are this stupid
sadsushi on November 7, 2012 at 8:00 PM
The madness of the nistas continues. On the bright side, I think mental health is covered by Obamacare.
xblade on November 7, 2012 at 8:01 PM
Doesn’t matter. Obamacare and whatever other liberal programs the dems get passed during this Obama term will be here to stay forever. Over the next 4 years, the supreme court will move solidly into democrat control for the next 30 years or more, and will rubber stamp any and every liberal argument that crosses their desk. Yeah, the country is pretty much done. This was the last, best hope of taking it back. The voters chose big government liberalism while buying into the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign ever run in modern history. They got what they wanted, and it’s here forever now. Even if we manage to win in the future, it won’t matter. There is no undoing the damage that has been done at this point.
xblade on November 7, 2012 at 8:14 PM
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