Don’t blame Romney
Every election predictor was wrong, except one: Incumbents usually win. …
The Democrats ran up against the incumbency problem in 2004. The landslide election for Democrats in 2006 suggests that Americans were not thrilled with Republicans around the middle of the last decade. And yet in 2004, President George W. Bush beat John Kerry more handily than Obama edged past Romney this week.
Democratic candidate John Kerry won 8 million more votes than Al Gore did in 2000, and he still couldn’t win. All the Democrats’ money, media, Bush Derangement Syndrome and even a demoralized conservative base couldn’t trump the power of incumbency in 2004. …
Romney was the perfect candidate, and he was the president this country needed right now. It’s less disheartening that a president who wrecked American health care, quadrupled gas prices, added $6 trillion to the national debt and gave us an 8 percent unemployment rate can squeak out re-election than that America will never have Romney as our president.
Indeed, Romney is one of the best presidential candidates the Republicans have ever fielded. Blaming the candidate may be fun, but it’s delusional and won’t help us avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
Blowback
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I used to like her.
Night Owl on November 8, 2012 at 9:19 AM
It’s our American Idol electorate that values celebrity over competence. Doesn’t matter to folks that get most of their news from the Daily Show that he had more time to do late night talk shows and attend fundraisers than he did to meet with Bibi, or meet with his jobs council. They don’t care…they just voted for the cool kid.
changer1701 on November 8, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Uh, it was romney who made the mistakes , he should take much of the blame.
the_nile on November 8, 2012 at 9:20 AM
A good candidate with poor campaign advisers, Ann?
Wethal on November 8, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Romney/Ryan was as good as any team available. You can’t force people to run. They were willing to do it. The problem is, more Americans want free stuff from the government than don’t want free stuff. There’s your problem.
RBMN on November 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM
Her books are interesting rants…
OmahaConservative on November 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM
She’s right, amidst all the hand wringing (I’ve done plenty myself) people should remember since 1964 only two Incumbent presidents lost, Carter and Bush Sr. And if you want to go further back, you could go all the way to 1932 when Hoover lost Incumbents almost always win. F.D.R 3 times over, Truman, Ike, L.B.J, Nixon, Reagan, W Bush, Obama, they all were re-elected.
rob verdi on November 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM
He chose poorly , he should take the blame for that.
the_nile on November 8, 2012 at 9:21 AM
I don’t blame Romney,he is what he is, I blame Ann and people like her for thinking he could win and for being a hateful person who gives Republicans a bad name.
txmomof6 on November 8, 2012 at 9:22 AM
DOOOOOOOON’T
CAAAAAAAARE
GO AWAAAAAAAAY!!!
LordMaximus on November 8, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Yes, he has about the best track record for president in these times that I can imagine. He lost, and we lost. Big.
petefrt on November 8, 2012 at 9:23 AM
I’m getting a little tired of the excuse-making on Romney’s behalf. Romney failed to make his case to the American people, and he lost.
Aitch748 on November 8, 2012 at 9:24 AM
If you think anyone else from the primaries would’ve done better, I think you’re fooling yourself.
RBMN on November 8, 2012 at 9:25 AM
I think Coulter is busy trying to repair her own image. It’s not gonna work. The image most of us see is her snuggled up on a couch with Bill Maher and Chris Christie.
NoNails on November 8, 2012 at 9:26 AM
So many on the right sounding like a bunch of lefties … blame, blame, blame.
How about a little personal responsibility?
Lost in Jersey on November 8, 2012 at 9:28 AM
yes, and both in a three way race, which is significant; can’t think of incumbent losing a two way race (recent history)
runner on November 8, 2012 at 9:29 AM
She can blame Aikn and Mourdock all she wants, but like Benghazi, it’s not an issue if the media doesn’t report it. The liberals ran a huge and mostly unreported campaign using online social media that was wildly successful. Anytime you can convince voters to voluntary spread propaganda to their peer group you’re going to get results. Young people trust their hip family and friends more than a stodgy old white guy on the TV. That’s the lesson of this election – and I’m afraid the Right Wing Establishment is incapable of learning it.
Xavier on November 8, 2012 at 9:29 AM
John McCain was the worst possible Republican candidate in 2008. And Mitt RomneyCare was the worst possible Republican candidate in 2012.
The media learned a lot from Ronald Reagan. Propaganda can’t guarantee a victory over a strong candidate in the general election, but it can decide primaries.
logis on November 8, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Ann, you are worse then Jennifer Rubin & Erika Johnsen combined.
Think with your brain, not your heart.
I swear, she carries around a trapper keeper with Mitt one one side and Christie on the other.
portlandon on November 8, 2012 at 9:32 AM
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell.
Mimzey on November 8, 2012 at 9:33 AM
FIFM
ShainS on November 8, 2012 at 9:34 AM
I agree with her as per Akin and Mourdock. They did us NO favors.
Romney was the only candidate we could have fielded with any hope of victory out of the group we had last year.
Bachmann with the “retarded” comment.
Newt with the “Kenyan, anti-colonialist” comment.
Cain with…well…Cain.
Santorum…being Santorum.
On and on. None of them would have come nearly as close as Romney did.
I see a lot of Romney bashing around here in the last two days. Romney ran a great campaign. He whipped out white boards, jumped on the Third Rail of Politics (who the hell has done that lately, aside from GWB?). All summer he railed against the inexperience of a Chicago political community organizer.
When Axelrod had a campaign stop, Romney was stopping nearby at Solyndra.
He picked Paul Ryan and added a curveball to the whole campaign. It ignited peoples’ enthusiasm.
People say they squandered the convention. Maybe they’re right, but maybe they needed to spend the time humanizing Romney after six months of negative ads from Obama. Who knows.
The Romney camp ran a nimble campaign. They would respond quickly with ads to various things done by the Obama camp, and Romney performed very admirably in the debates. He was presidential.
I see a lot of people quickly turning tail and just blaming Romney for everything. It reeks of petulancy.
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Step right up mitt romney!
the_nile on November 8, 2012 at 9:34 AM
I’m more concerned with how many people voted for Barky the Wonder Coward.
If I don’t like any of the candidates I leave the field blank, I don’t have to vote.
Bishop on November 8, 2012 at 9:36 AM
The electorate voted for the cool kid in 2008.
The electorate voted for the cool kid in 2012.
We just sent in the hall monitor to try to beat the cool kid.
portlandon on November 8, 2012 at 9:36 AM
I don’t blame Romney, I blame you. You were the worst proponent for Gov. Romney that there could be. Stick with being against things, it suits your personality better.
Cindy Munford on November 8, 2012 at 9:37 AM
B.s. You nominate a bland, uninspiring moderate and THEN when he loses you blame the electorate. That same electorate still disapproves of ObamaCare and still would be against raising the debt ceiling and is still nowhere near in accord with Obama’s moonbat worldview.
No he wasn’t, on either count. This country doesn’t need Mitt Romney as president. This country needed stop-on-the-dime turnaround. Romney would never have provided that.
ddrintn on November 8, 2012 at 9:38 AM
No. He owns this.
Irritable Pundit on November 8, 2012 at 9:39 AM
The fault is completely in the lap of the American people.
If you try to convince a lazy, brainwashed, pot smoking teenager with tattoos, 3 colored hair and an Ipod stuck in their ear that they are listening to the wrong people and that may ruin their lives…and they just crank up their Ipod and roll their eyes..how is it the fault of the parent when the kid ends up in a gang?
Mimzey on November 8, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Either Ann is outright lying or she is just plain ignorant. She seems fairly intelligent so I’m going to assume that she’s lying. In 2004 George W Bush beat John Kerry 286 to 251 EVs. Assuming Obama carries Florida, Obama would have beaten Mitt Romney 332 to 206 EVs. If Ann can’t get a few basic facts right then loses all credibility. In reality, this is a CYA piece for Ann and she is intentionally trying to mislead her readers.
antifederalist on November 8, 2012 at 9:41 AM
The War on Women apparently worked. That’s the narrative the media wanted. What should Romney have done to push back on that? Which of our fine candidates would have been a better warrior on that issue?
The good news is that the War on Medicare failed when tried on Ryan.
rhombus on November 8, 2012 at 9:41 AM
The electorate voted for the cool kid because they didn’t perceive any real alternative. That’s not the fault of the electorate.
ddrintn on November 8, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Oh please. That first debate couldn’t have been done ANY BETTER.
70 something million people watched it
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 9:41 AM
I love how people blame Mitt for not “making his case to America,” then turn around and whine about the media blinding the American people a week later on an unrelated matter.
Can’t have it both ways.
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 9:42 AM
And who’s gonna vote for that? Other commenters are right – we’ve passed the tipping point. The takers want their free stuff, economic and budgetary consequences be damned.
Common Sense Floridian on November 8, 2012 at 9:43 AM
The “perfect” candidate lost. So we could have run anybody. And the argument that no one else on the GOP bench could have done better is completely moot.
Dongemaharu on November 8, 2012 at 9:43 AM
Really?
Romney won White women by 16 points.
GOP has a RACE-GAP problem not a gender-gap problem
LordMaximus on November 8, 2012 at 9:43 AM
Sorry Anne, it was Romney’s fault. Along with those that backed him from the start exactly for the reasons you think he was such a perfect candidate.
There is little reason to talk about Kerry getting more votes and the power of incumbency when our candidate could not match the total Bush got 8 YEARS ago in winning reelection. Had Romney matched Bush’s 04 vote he would have won handily. How low a bar exactly do we need for to set before we admit it was the candidate? Half the vote from 8 years ago? Low voter turnout elections used to be the Republican’s specialty. What happened?
Suggesting Romney was the perfect candidate after the vote he turned out is like saying Dole only lost because Clinton was so popular. What happened in the 1996 election? Oh yeah, that was the only other time in the last century the total vote dropped from the previous election. Ay least Clinton could say he picked up votes from 92 to 96. Obama got less votes than Bush in 04 did too!
We don’t need the perfect candidate. We need the perfect campaigner. Regardless of where that candidate is on the issues that candidate needs to excite passion. Your average voter had no reason to be passionate about Romney. What was Romney passionate about? Does anyone know?
Romney was Bob Dole circa 2012. He even picked a VP famous for being a policy wonk in the House of Representatives just like Dole did with Kemp. Can we at least set a rule which states if you haven’t run a successful state wide election you don’t belong on a national ticket?
Romney may have been the perfect candidate but his campaign was a perfect disaster.
Rocks on November 8, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Single women and the country has lots of them.
rhombus on November 8, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Translation:
This country needs a dictator.
Well…you should be happy because Romney losing gives us the closest thing we’ve ever seen.
Mimzey on November 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM
LOL. What a cartoon Coulter is.
Dante on November 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM
He was “perfect” which means it’s impossible to do any better. So are we going to just skip the next election, since perfect isn’t good enough?
Dongemaharu on November 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM
I heard her and Hannity arguing yesterday…awesome. She’s such a hack.
MoreLiberty on November 8, 2012 at 9:46 AM
America has a RACE-BAITER problem.
Mimzey on November 8, 2012 at 9:46 AM
The GOP primary was a parade of excellent people of all races. Sorry, what was rejected was the American message and the fine and successful races that were on display at the GOP primary were smeared and dismissed as tokens. American ideals and exceptionalism was rejected. This makes sense when we have so many who are new to the country but the native Americans now reject it too.
rhombus on November 8, 2012 at 9:47 AM
No, the country needs a damn TURNAROUND. It needs to avoid going off the damn cliff, and statism-lite isn’t going to do it, I don’t care how decent a guy Romney is.
ddrintn on November 8, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Missed it.
What kind of things did you hear?
Mimzey on November 8, 2012 at 9:47 AM
One thing doesn’t exclude the other.
Media is a monster , Mitt and his team wasn’t good enough.
the_nile on November 8, 2012 at 9:47 AM
No, we’ll have the same damn fight about whether to emphasize fiscal issues or social issues.
rhombus on November 8, 2012 at 9:49 AM
LOL, only he whooped Obama in the debates, killed him in crowds at rallies, had a nimble ad campaign that responded to the left swiftly, and had the best ground game we have seen for the GOP in quite some time.
Enough with this BS. Everyone was all into his campaign for the last month and a half. Now, because they lost, like petulant kids, they turn around and blame everything on Romney.
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 9:52 AM
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