How conservative media lost the election
Some conservative writers now worry that their media outlets spent too much time poking and prodding old-guard journalistic institutions rather than digging up dirt on the Obama administration.
“My impression from the outside was that the target of the vetting effort was always the mainstream media, not really the president,” said Ben Domenech, a conservative blogger and co-founder of the long-running conservative blog RedState.com…
John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a prolific tweeter, rejected the notion that Obama’s reelection represented a failure of the conservative media. But he said that as the GOP tries to widen its tent in the coming months and years, conservative sites will need to stay out of the way — or better yet, cheer on the effort.
He singled out RedState.com, which has earned credibility on the right, in part, by targeting vulnerable moderates in Republican primaries, and directing grassroots readers to defeat them. Podhoretz warned against the site’s “hunger and desire to establish an ideological party line and draw boundaries around it, and say anyone who’s not in this line should not be elected and should be destroyed.”
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They lost by believing that this guy actually believes in small government.
http://gawker.com/5962089/failed-gop-presidential-nominee-mitt-romney-reduced-to-pumping-own-gas?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
MoreLiberty on November 20, 2012 at 4:22 PM
They back stabbed every conservative in the primary season first, then started to really screw up.
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 4:25 PM
Are we going to get articles about what/how the r’s lost along the lines of bho still blaming Bush for everything over four years later?
WE lost! If we want to win, well I would think we need to do/change something? And if those r’s running don’t get votes, it didn’t work?
L
letget on November 20, 2012 at 4:27 PM
The GOP’s problem is that their principles are self-destructive… they worship businessmen, corporations, and capitalism way too much even when those institution are often anti-conservative.
I won’t take the GOP seriously until they start waging economic war against Hollywood and Academia. Until then, they’re just wasting their time.
ninjapirate on November 20, 2012 at 4:28 PM
What does that link have to do with your point?
And that isn’t why they lost, besides.
changer1701 on November 20, 2012 at 4:29 PM
they did both successfully.
Joseph Russo III on November 20, 2012 at 4:31 PM
BTW, I should have added, there will be NO way a r will win when the bhopress/d’s go after those running for every single word out of their mouth! The race/sexist/wealth/poor/free stuff voters/amnesty will do in a r everytime when you have to deal with bhopress?
L
letget on November 20, 2012 at 4:31 PM
By lending credibility to hipster “news” sites like Buzzfeed?
WeekendAtBernankes on November 20, 2012 at 4:31 PM
The leftists are:
1. Looters, like Obama and his thuggish machine
2. Moochers, kept in modern day plantations, for votes
The rightists are:
1. Producers or gone Galt types
2. Fools (see Hume, FOX et establishment, Boehner/McConnell, legal voters/taxpayers of all strings)
When the middle class will be dead, which Obama will see to it, it will be the end of the USA but she’ll continue as AmeriKa.
Schadenfreude on November 20, 2012 at 4:31 PM
They failed because they thought conservatives would rather vote Obama out, but little did they know that their are some conservatives who are so mind boggly short sighted that they thought staying home was better, but these idiots dont seem to realize what they have done so they like to pretend that Mitt and Obama are the same type of politican.
ChunkyLover on November 20, 2012 at 4:35 PM
Spot on. And nice name too.
thebrokenrattle on November 20, 2012 at 4:42 PM
Alternate Headline: “Buzzfeed uses election to gloat and disparage conservatives”
Opposite Day on November 20, 2012 at 4:43 PM
It’s not so much that ‘conservative’ media lost the election – it is the fact that 40 years of gub’mint school, collectivist indoctrination has achieved the Liberals’ desired result: obtuse sheeple ignorant of history and dependent on govt.
locomotivebreath1901 on November 20, 2012 at 4:44 PM
The RNC’s poor management lost the election. Other than fundraising, they don’t do a lot well. They don’t do a good job of defining the GOP, or finding/training/equipping candidates, or tracking the mood of the electorate, or providing raw data that candidates can use.
The Democrats work harder and smarter in an all-out effort to win. And they win. Maybe there’s a connection there.
We don’t have to open a Chinese fundraising arm, but we do need a lot of work in order to catch up with how well the Dems do at the small things.
hawksruleva on November 20, 2012 at 4:48 PM
lookup ‘echo-chamber’ – that tells you all you need to know
gatorboy on November 20, 2012 at 4:51 PM
They are not the same type of politician, they just end up at the same conclusions for different reasons, both of which are PROGRESSIVE.
The GOP has a tarnished image. Time to repair it. The tarnishing comes from them acting like Democrats. Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, failure to open up more land to energy production, failure to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, followed by pushing home ownership through 0 down loans through government agencies, gloating about how awesome minority home ownership rates were, failure to reign in the housing boom, bailouts when it finally went BOOM, “investing” in auto companies, Compassionate conservatism, comprehensive immigration deform complete with massive amnesty. That was just BUSH.
Then came the lame duck 2010 session where they foisted several progressive goals on us, thanks in part to Breitbart one of those was repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Post 2010 congress failed to even try to get anything done on their promises and passed out garbage and told us it was gold plated conservative awesomeness that was the best we could get.
So, what does the GOP do? puts out the author of Obamacare and the most progressive of the lot of contenders for the nomination.
Some voter AIN’T going to vote for you when all you do is back stab them after every election, particularly when the back stabbing by Romney was happening before the votes even started!
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 4:54 PM
With its greatest conversion factor happening between the 2010 elections and the 2012 elections! Who’d a thunk it!?!
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Fighting thugs with silky gloves lost the election.
Decency doesn’t win.
Thuggery and charlatanry do.
Media, the old one, suffocate, pronto, from what you consume, you derelicts of duty.
Schadenfreude on November 20, 2012 at 4:57 PM
Two Santas – theirs was more magnanimous.
Schadenfreude on November 20, 2012 at 4:58 PM
You can win without being a thug and charlatan. But if a voter things the choice is between ‘a nice guy who happens to be wrong’ and a greedy, heartless, callous friend of the rich, who’s he going to vote for?
Our craven insistence on avoiding tough talk on Obama hurt us. More importantly, Romney’s strategy of holding his ad spending allowed Obama to define Romney before much of America knew much about him.
hawksruleva on November 20, 2012 at 5:05 PM
Implies that had conservative media said something else Romney might have won. Doubtful, since nobody follows conservative media except us & a handful of trolls.
Enough. Self flagellation is exactly what the enemy wants us to do.
dhimwit on November 20, 2012 at 5:07 PM
In 2016 the republicans are not going to nominate someone to the right of Romney, you will get someone like Huntsman
ChunkyLover on November 20, 2012 at 5:09 PM
Um, Didn’t Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer, Scott Pelley, Steve Kroft, CNN, MSNBC, Headline News, 90% of local newscasts, Matt Lauer and ALL morning shows actually WIN – repeat – WIN the election for Obama? The substantive story is that crooked propagandists masquerading as “Journalists” provided $BILLIONS worth of fake credibility, omissions, and cover-ups for a radical nutjob. That’s the story.
bob77 on November 20, 2012 at 5:10 PM
I have not looked over the thread, but the Breitbart-styled media does find dirt on Obama and plenty of it, but it receives mostly crickets from the LSM.
mwbri on November 20, 2012 at 5:13 PM
you see their is this thing called a primary and Romney won it, The other candidates didnt.
So what do you think they are going to do now. They are going to do ever more of that type of policies. Just try to knock out the Republican congressional leadership, the Replican party is now going to take an even bigger role in the congressional elections.
Christ, the house dems lost two elections and they still cant get rid of pelosi.
People will adjust, Obamacare will be that much harder to get rid of in the future
ChunkyLover on November 20, 2012 at 5:21 PM
*applause*
Don’t forget that Ben Smith of Journolist fame is with Buzzfeed.
kim roy on November 20, 2012 at 5:22 PM
This time I will let it burn, like I PLANNED to do with Romney… Should have stuck to my guns.
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 5:25 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/12/opinion/henson-toddlers-tiaras/index.html
libfreeordie on November 20, 2012 at 5:29 PM
I have to admit, this article has a point. Breitbart in particular focused heavily on the bias of the media, but the media isn’t on the ballot. Breitbart News also played a part in downplaying the Democratic voter turnout before the election, as did many conservative sites. I’m not sure if there was any way of knowing if Obama truly would have mobilized his vote the way he did in 2008, common sense would suggest it wasn’t likely, but he ended up coming awfully close and won the election. Nate Silver is a terrible political pundit and yet another liberal hack in the media, but his numbers were vindicated.
I would like to see Conservative media become less expressly Conservative and operate more like objective sources of news who happen to have conservatives working for them. Hot Air does a pretty good job at this but is more of an opinion blog.
As for this:
I like Commentary magazine a lot, but this is a load of crap. We’re in a spending crisis with plenty of Republicans to blame alongside the Democrats, it just makes sense to get rid of the Republicans who contributed to this problem and who stand in the way of fixing the problem. I don’t support rigid ideological purity either, but if the base can get us reliable conservatives elected in conservative districts and states then of course we should go for it. Lugar ended up being a sore loser and proved he had no business being in the Senate, he will not be missed. It’s a damn shame Mourdock lost, but aside from that idiotic Akin moment of his in the debate he was a perfectly acceptable candidate. As for Akin himself, the Tea Party didn’t even support him, very few outside of Missouri even knew who the hell he was. what I am sick of is reading and hearing “moderate” Republicans attack the conservative base over and over yet TWICE their preferred candidate got crushed by Obama.
Daemonocracy on November 20, 2012 at 5:29 PM
No, they didn’t. Refusing to take personal responsibility is loser talk. Reagan fought through the MSM and won in landslides. It can be done with principled conservatism. Romney capitulated and lost, the loss is on him.
sauldalinsky on November 20, 2012 at 5:31 PM
We lost and will lose from now on if we don’t take on the MSM now!
GardenGnome on November 20, 2012 at 5:40 PM
and then?
ChunkyLover on November 20, 2012 at 5:55 PM
What conservative media? There is one? I mean, beyond Fox — and they can only barely be called conservative — is there a conservative media, really? I don’t think so. Just a bunch of web sites and blogs.
TrueNorthist on November 20, 2012 at 6:24 PM
I should have used “loosely” instead of “barely” conservative. Or even just slightly less biased than the rest.
TrueNorthist on November 20, 2012 at 6:26 PM
Nope. Romney didn’t lose because of the conservative media or the liberal media, or the women vote, or the young vote, or amnesty, or because Romney didn’t play Santa Clause as much as Obama or even because he didn’t get the conservative message out. Obama won for one reason and one reason only and that is because he got the black vote out in very large numbers, larger than any of the polls expected, and they voted for him because of the color of his skin. Racism is not dead in America, yes, most white people will vote for a black, white, Hispanic or anyone else but black people will vote for a black guy over a white guy every time regardless of the debt, jobs, foreign policy, abortion, amnesty, or any other issue. They supported him in 2008 and they turned out again for him in 2012. If not for this, Romney would have won. Even with 99% of the black vote going for Obama, Romney only lost by less than 5 points. Blacks didn’t turn out in 2010 because Obama was not running and the Republicans won huge that year. All I can say is: thank God Obama can’t run again.
Dollayo on November 20, 2012 at 6:27 PM
I think talk radio is the biggest conservative media outlet.
Dollayo on November 20, 2012 at 6:29 PM
Don’t care at this point. Move to a freer nation, like say Poland or the Ukraine, Canada, Australia? By then they will be freer and if the Republicans have not woken up by then, it will only be getting worse.
I have genius level IQ, have a skill set that is valued, am one of the best at doing my job no matter where I land after a week or two at most getting acquainted with the processes at the new joint, and have yet to ever fail to get a job on the first contact of the person making the hiring decision, who is usually the first person I talk to.
So, I can pretty much succeed anywhere, I do not need my beloved America for that, and since I no longer really have a beloved America so much as an old hag of a government, few tears will be shed.
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 6:36 PM
The only thing really wrong with this statement is the person they let get into their head. Romney got into their head, and because his views are progressive, it was anathema to talk about, let alone campaign on things we believe in.
Romney created and still loves RomneyCare in massachusetts, so out went campaigning against Obamacare.
Romney loves regulations, I saw very little campaigning or talk about what should be done, other than area effect statements of we need to look at regulations.
Romney loves spending money, it is how he did business for his whole career, not making it, but spending it. So, out went the talk about a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
The list of things we believe in that we forsake this election cycle is legion. Not that anyone made a list of 60 plus items during the primary saying that Romney would not win because he could not campaign effectively if at all on these items. It seems it came to pass.
Romney, not Obama caused all of you to give up on what you believe in, ROMNEY.
astonerii on November 20, 2012 at 6:41 PM
George W Bush had a concervative core but always caved or moved left on policy. He governed like a moderate liberal.
Romney has moderate utilitarian philosophy but has an actual record of battling a liberal legislature and consistently moving policy to the right of what they wanted to pass. He won independents but still lost because he doesn’t pass a purity litmus test for the base.
I’ve said since 2008 it was always foolish to measure the candidate by some litmus of where there are ideologically instead of what their record is on actually moving the needle on policy. People like you still don’t get it. You are like the bakers union that just voted your own jobs away because you don’t care about results only some ideal you are never going to reach.
Resolute on November 20, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Maybe I’m wrong but the Senate is trying to pass a bill that gives multiple agencies the ability to look through your email, face books posts tweeter and etc all without a warrant or probable cause and HA doesn’t feel it’s important enough to discuss. That’s one reason conservatives lost, because they don’t gives a rats ass about constitutional rights and neither do the dems.
MoreLiberty on November 20, 2012 at 7:02 PM
LoLz..This is Buzzfeed trife and I’m not buying it..
Dire Straits on November 20, 2012 at 7:03 PM
Ya like his insurance mandate in Romneycare.
MoreLiberty on November 20, 2012 at 7:08 PM
Yes, I agree.
Dollayo on November 20, 2012 at 8:01 PM