The machine beat the manager
Mitt Romney won white voters by 20 points nationwide, but in the swing states he dramatically underperformed. He won only 46 percent of whites in New Hampshire, 51 percent in Wisconsin, 47 percent in Iowa, and 54 percent in Colorado. Karlyn Keene of the American Enterprise Institute says it looks as if blue-collar whites disproportionately stayed home. Exit polls showed that Americans with only some college education were outnumbered at the polls by those who were college graduates — something that rarely happens in national elections. The brazenness of the Obama ads was breathtaking. One spot featured Romney as a heartless vulture capitalist who was responsible for killing the wife of a steelworker during his time at Bain Capital. Not only was the story false, but Team Obama denied responsibility for the ad only days after they had put the former steelworker on a conference call with reporters to convince them to write about his tale…
Joe Trippi, who was the manager of Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign, says he realized on Monday afternoon that Romney had lost the election. He was reading Scott Rasmussen’s final tracking poll, which showed Obama and Romney essentially tied. But in a footnote, Rasmussen warned that only 67 percent of voters who had cast ballots already were white. He said that meant Romney would have to have an electorate on Election Day that was 77 percent white — a demographic bridge too far.
Blowback
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“Manager” is kind of a strong word to use for the Willard campaign.
I’d call it … “Rope-A-Doper” … since that seems to have been the strategy all along. Don’t hit Obama – let him beat the hell out of you then … at the last minute … when he’s out of steam … BAM!
Didn’t work out for poor poor Mittie.
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 3:09 PM
good manager, bad politician. no surprise here.
nathor on November 8, 2012 at 3:10 PM
Time to break the machine
Sekhmet on November 8, 2012 at 3:14 PM
The machine will die, the only question is how much damage will be done to the rest of us.
rob verdi on November 8, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Honda stop taking gleeful pleasure in all of this.
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Let’s see how the machine faces the economic criss. It’s really starting to hit Europe and give us about 6 months.
Oil Can on November 8, 2012 at 3:21 PM
The reason I’m “gleeful” is … I really believe this is IT for the GOP Ayatollahs. This could be a turning point for the Republican party if it will JUST FIRE THE HELL out of the numbasses who sank this nation, and the party in 2007 – but who are STILL running the GOP.
Mitt was a food and water donkey that would have carried provisions to the Ayatollahs on Capitol Hill. They would have done nothing but sank this nation again and the people would have (again) assigned the blame to CONSERVATIVES.
We really are – NO WORSE OFF – with Obama. The revolution was coming anyway when either party bankrupted the nation. Oh sure – it would have been a slower death in the hands of the GOP – but please, give me a sledgehammer to the head rather that boiling me slowly in a pot like a freakin’ frog.
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 3:21 PM
Sigh. Some were right: Mitt Romney was essentially John Kerry and the election was a repeat of ’04.
Punchenko on November 8, 2012 at 3:26 PM
Honda and punchenko on the same thread oh lord
blatantblue on November 8, 2012 at 3:30 PM
We can’t beat Santa Claus in an election. There is only one option
Sekhmet on November 8, 2012 at 3:31 PM
Dems are concentrated in small, high-density areas (metropolitan areas), so “the machine” know’s exactly where to go and can efficiently round them up. Republicans don’t have that advantage.
michaelthomas on November 8, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Is the GOP establishment going to start talking about their White constituents the way the leftists talk about their Black constituents?
WeekendAtBernankes on November 8, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Except that Mitt Romney is a good man with integrity, John Kerry is not; Mitt Romney has executive experience, John Kerry had none; Mitt Romney loves his country, John Kerry loathes it.
Actually, other than their Massachusetts connection, and the fact they each lost to an incumbent, they’re nothing alike.
Right Mover on November 8, 2012 at 3:38 PM
Obama runs ads about Romney killing steelworkers wife, Romney calls Obama a “nice guy” repeatedly.
Obama wins election.
Dash on November 8, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Not exactly true – Kerry supports RomneyCare and Willard … well it’s named after him.
We forgot here also – that Kerry was in the Navy. Big “0″ in that category for Willard – as well for every ancestor in his family tree. Odd that, don’t you think?
Even Obama had an uncle in uniform – who stormed the beach at D-Day.
Pretty sad when you can’t beat Obama’s sorry and sad military connections – yet Willard couldn’t.
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Same thing happened with McCain and the same thing will happen over and over again every time you guys nominate one of the “Ayatollah’s Boys”. The Ayatollahs are scared of the Dims – scared to get down in the mud with ‘em and fight.
If they can’t do that – they don’t have what it takes to straighten this nation out and don’t deserve power.
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Forgot to add – another similarity between Kerry and Willard is the fact that, like Kerry, Willard was very often “for” things before he was “against” them.
Flip flop flip flop
HondaV65 on November 8, 2012 at 3:57 PM
.
You should be very concerned. People who’ve never had to take responsibility for their actions don’t suddenly admit something is their fault. It always somebody else, and there are demagogues that will validate that belief.
Look at Detroit. Do you think anyone actually admits that the reason the city is broke is that the city chased everyone away and pi$$ed away the treasury?
Another more extreme example, is Zimbabwe and what happened there. There was always a strawman, a demon, some rich person, to blame.
Mitt was hardly perfect but dancing on his loss is a dance for anarchy, and everyone suffering.
LincolntheHun on November 8, 2012 at 4:04 PM
It’s not only about economics. It’s always been baffling to me how the “lets burn it down without at least trying” people and libertarians forget that.
Maybe you and yours have difficulty seeing the big picture.
*shrug*
kim roy on November 8, 2012 at 4:17 PM
This “demographics” canard needs to go away. We’re approaching quickly the tipping point where the US has no ethnic majority but we’re not there yet.
If Romney’s numbers are correct and not the result of fraud, then he lost because he failed to turn out white voters.
Rather than blathering about the Hispanic vote and the need to embrace Amnesty, the GOP needs to talk about how to win greater numbers of whites.
sartana on November 8, 2012 at 5:11 PM