Romney’s campaign team wonders where it all went wrong
One of the gravest errors, many say, was the Romney team’s failure, until too late in the campaign, to sell voters on the candidate’s personal qualities and leadership gifts. The effect was to open the way for Obama to define Romney through an early blitz of negative advertising. Election Day polls showed that the vast majority of voters concluded that Romney did not really care about average people.
These failures are now the subject of scrutiny by national GOP officials who say they plan to “reverse engineer” the Romney effort to understand what went wrong. A number of Romney’s top aides stressed in interviews that, while they remain proud of their work, they feel an obligation to acknowledge their numerous mistakes so lessons are learned.
Rich Beeson, the Romney political director who coauthored the now-discredited Ohio memo, said that only after the election did he realize what Obama was doing with so much manpower on the ground. Obama had more than 3,000 paid workers nationwide, compared with 500 for Romney, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
“Now I know what they were doing with all the staffs and offices,” Beeson said. “They were literally creating a one-to-one contact with voters,” something that Romney did not have the staff to match.
Blowback
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Indicated by his governing record how, exactly? Come on. Be specific. Not his millions, not his business, not his lovely wife and kids.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 5:47 PM
You have reading comprehension issues, don’t you? My FOAD was to the Obama voter as it is to anyone who voted for Obama. Most of them aren’t demented or moronic enough to come here and admit it like it’s some sort of idiot’s badge of honor. Glad to point out the obvious to you.
I have and had no illusions on what Romney was. I stated repeatedly he was the status quo, but the foreign policy issues were what worried me. Of course, you forget that part of it and would rather attribute things to me that I either didn’t say or that you can’t understand.
kim roy on December 23, 2012 at 5:50 PM
Oh, come off it. The fact that he says he voted for O is an excuse. You and others were just as vile at anyone who didn’t swallow the Mitt’s-gonna-do-it KoolAid.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 5:53 PM
A man’s character is what he does in his private life..what he does when no one is looking.
What a person does in a state dominated by a governing liberals is another thing. What a person does in a certain time and under certain circumstances may not be indicative of decisions that would be made in a crisis.
Anyway..how about answering the questions I asked?
Be specific.
Mimzey on December 23, 2012 at 5:54 PM
And if you think the status quo is a good thing, even a RELATIVELY good thing, maybe you shouldn’t snark about reading comprehension, ya know? Just a thought.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 5:55 PM
If you can show me where I have said FOAD (and to make it easier for you anything remotely similar) to anyone BUT a liberal, Obama voter or troll, I’ll concede.
I’ll be waiting.
But I do appreciate you lumping me in with everyone else. It’s easier that way, isn’t it?
kim roy on December 23, 2012 at 5:57 PM
ROFL…so when he got to a city dominated by liberals, this good-guy-in-private was going to be just what we needed.
You first. Point out some of Romney’s governance that should’ve made conservatives thrilled about him. You can’t. All you can do is trot out the same old tired ‘bot “but it was a lib state” talking point. And how decent a guy he is and what a wonderful family and blahblahblah.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 5:58 PM
FIFY
Norwegian on December 23, 2012 at 5:58 PM
Either you are really this dumb or you have dug yourself into a hole and think that by continuing to dig you’ll find your way out.
Compared to what BS Obama is going to bring, the status quo will be something we will remember fondly.
And you well know this. Geez. I’m out. You’ve taken up my quota of “dealing with stupid” already today.
kim roy on December 23, 2012 at 5:59 PM
Oh, you mean the way you did with your “unlike those other butthurt Palinistas, I’m a Kool Kid who thinks Romney’s going to win” routine? Yeah, right.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 6:00 PM
Idiotic. That is the friggin’ CONTINUATION of the status quo, genius. Its fruits.
ddrintn on December 23, 2012 at 6:01 PM
You’d think. When so many get paid tens of thousands dollars in cash and benefits for years by just pretending to look for work, and any news they get is from MTV or Comedy Central, any adult should have predicted that 800lb gorilla eating our lunch.
elfman on December 23, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Non sequitur.
Now you’re just being childish…possibly unaware of it.
What is it that makes you so hesitant to answer a couple of simple questions?
If you believe in what you say, you should be eager to.
You’re discussion tactics are as honest and honorable as any left wing liberal imo…endless words that contain no substance but the lard of opinion.
Mimzey on December 23, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Thats true of them…I was referring to all the people who sat out the election, or voted for Biff Johnson ect, because they somehow perceived Romney and Ryan to be no different the Maobama and Uncle Joe.
I’ve been asking some of those who think in that manner for some insight as to how this is possible, but have not gotten anything but talking points.
Mimzey on December 23, 2012 at 6:13 PM
Yes! IDIOTS! Everyone who doesn’t love Romney is an IDIOT! He’s the perfect candidate! He’s a sure WIN! It’s just that the electorate was to STUPID to know how great a candidate he was!!!@11211
He probably really did win it’s just that the people counting the votes were to STUPID to count right!1!1!!!
29Victor on December 23, 2012 at 7:01 PM
Dear Romney Campaign,
I can tell you exactly where it all went wrong!
When Mitt Romney allowed Candy Crowley to join in the debate without a challange.
A Ronald Reagan would have said something like this to Candy, “There you go again, showing us that you’ve actually coordinated with my opponent before this debate even started. Well since you had the foresight to bring the transcripts he requested with you, would you be so kind as to read the section of the Speech where he Specifically referred to the Benghazi attack as an act of Terrorism and wasn’t just mentioning Terrorism in general during the speech?”
jaydee_007 on December 23, 2012 at 7:22 PM
Ronald Reagan was Conservative from the Core outward.
Mitt Romney was conservative only skin deep.
jaydee_007 on December 23, 2012 at 7:23 PM
Never mind, of course, the unvarnished fact that Mittens had been busy campaigning for the Republican party’s nomination for the previous SIX years, non-stop.
MittBots: always an excuse… never any acceptance of responsibility. *snort*
Kent18 on December 23, 2012 at 7:49 PM
Sometimes I wish the bumbling, maladroit CINO wing of the GOP-e would just go ahead and rip off the rubber face masks and nominate Dennis Kucinich or Al Franken for the top of the GOP ticket, the way they so clearly and desperately ache to do.
Kent18 on December 23, 2012 at 7:55 PM
The bumper sticker on my car was “Mitt Romney? Really? At least HE’S not a marxist” I wasn’t sure if I’d vote for him until a few days before the election, but eventually did. Here I tried to explain this to people who couldn’t understand. Maybe It’ll help.
elfman on December 23, 2012 at 9:12 PM
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