The Romney/Republican Excuse Thread

It cuts both ways, although I would agree it's a net positive. You have four years of a record where you can be blamed for anything and everything that happened, regardless of what you did do or could have done, from the price of gas to attacks on embassies to your Secret Service guys sleeping with prostitutes. Romney's strongest pitch seemed to me to be "He's had four years and hasn't done enough"/"Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

When was it last the case that both parties had a good, sound, clear platform?

Or that the election was about issues instead of personalities?

I'm thinking probably not since the ascendancy of television on the latter.

There is plenty to be profoundly disappointed with Obama, to be sure. But I think there are definitely things that he has done that liberals would approve of:

1. Obamacare
2. Pulling support for the Defense of Marriage Act
3. Ending Don't Ask Don't tell
4. Fighting against the Arizona immigration law and for the DREAM Act (even if he was unsuccessful in the latter)
5. Ending the war in Iraq and moving toward ending the war in Afghanistan
6. Saving the domestic auto industry
7. Killing Osama.
8. The stimulus

One could debate how much credit he should get for any of the above, if the things listed above should/could have gone farther, or the various other things that liberals might welcome that he accomplished. Or if those things are again a net positive when compared to his many failures and steps backwards (drones, the right to presidential assassinations and so forth)

But it is unfair and untrue to say that he has done very little that liberals like. (Especially if you include in "done" attempts to do things).

The numbers are probably there for a pro civil liberties, pro legalization, pro business and anti imperialism coalition, but until the Republicans can defang the big government social conservatives it ain't gonna happen.

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Demographics trumped money.

Yes. Between the Presidential race and the ballot initiatives, I look at this as a wholesale repudiation of the Religious Right/Social Conservative movement. Something I'm more than ready to consign to the dustbin of history.

How are you determining 'states worth a shit'?

Im not argueing with you, Im not American and have only been to 3 different US states so im not qualified. But just interested in the criteria of worth a shit. Is it:

- Population
- Productivity
- Culture
- Food
- Scenary
- Weather
- Live-ability

Perhaps a definition of states not worth a shit might be better. I would have thought the mid western states right in the arsehole of America might be up there, but they tend to play their part with all the agriculture.

Is poking at the sore losers being a sore winner?
Cuz...I'm gonna be doing some of that...

Romney's weakness was his pandering to far-right social interests, and his inability to offer coherent arguments about how to better improve the economy or our foreign policy. He allowed his economic plan to be defined by the other side's criticisms, rather than selling it as a clear package.

I honestly thought, at their very beginning, that the Tea Party was going to give the GOP a big kick in that direction. Ho Lee crap was I wrong.

How did they fool you?

They came across to me as fiscally conservative, socially who-gives-a-shit.

And I think that concept is exactly the issue. The fact is Obama is not wrecking the country, something that is obvious to most voters. Some fringe types will see it that way and vote accordingly, but to base your campaign on an idea that is obviously false won't swing enough of the non-committed voters.

Hoping for Chris Christie to run next time. I'd love a president who says to a snooty foreign diplomat, "Shut the fuck up and listen when I'm tawkin."

Funny, they always came across a bunch of whackaloon, know nothings to me. They fooled a lot of people for a while.

I actually like Chris Christie and if I lived in Jersey, I really could see myself voting for him, but what works for Jersey is not necessarily what would work for the White House.

Here's the thing. His economic plan was Bush redux, something that was pretty well repudiated, so his challenge was to not make it sound like what it actually was. His foreign policy was designed by Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, so how would he use this to distinguish himself? On both of these key issues, he either looks the same or worse than Obama if he makes a coherent statement. His best bet was to go with muddled pronouncements and hope that people would adhere their own ideas to it. That's a tough sell. And then you throw in the religious gobbly gook, and there you go.

Yeah...they were like that for the first couple....days...then the dicks trickled in, and then, what Mike said.

Looking at the final CNN national exit poll.

Barry got his base (blacks, 18-29, and Hispanics) to turnout in matching or better percentages as they were in 2008. As Molly Ball wrote a few weeks ago in the Atlantic, Obama had the better ground game in 08 and 12 but this time he needed it.

Barry was also able to dominate the below 50K income bracket. Enough to absorb an 8 point disadvantage in the +50K bracket.

Romney received about 4% higher of the white votes than McCain did but he also lost the Latino vote by a whopping 44%. While most people I think will point out Mitt's hard line stance on illegal immigrants, but I think this result could well be due to just economic divide or innate tribalism.

Yeah...Like I said. "at their very beginning" .

The Republican party needs to get younger, and more diverse.

In order to do that, they need to express their message
in a positive and enthusiastic manner.

Start talking about the future of our country.
The future of our actual country, the way it is today.

Stop talking about a trip back to the 1950's!


The numbers:

18 to 39 years ............. Obama 58.5% .......... Romney 39.5%
40 Plus ....................... Obama 46.5% .......... Romney 52.5%

White ......................... Obama 39% ............. Romney 59%
Black, Latino, Asian ....... Obama 82% ............. Romney 17%

Men ........................... Obama 46% ............. Romney 52%
Women ....................... Obama 54% ............. Romney 45%

That's the thing, they're not differentiating themselves enough, or, the things they are using to draw a difference on are turning people off.

The culture war has got to go, but I'm already hearing talk radio double down this morning. The republicans are on their way to Whig Party status if they can't see the writing on the wall.

My prediction? The first thing they do is get on board with immigration reform.

That could be first shot in the Republican civil war. If the whackaloons try to torpedo any kind of sensible reform (not that I'm sure what that is) the non-batshit battalions are liable to finally say "enough already." Demographically, the Republicans will marginalize themselves if they don't do something to reach out to the ethnic groups that are becoming the new majority.

Fox had a few people on last night for segments between Karl Rove's melt-down who were making that very argument -- that Romney shied away too much from the culture war issues, that the country is really very much the one from the 1950s, just yearning for a leader to point the way back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

If I were in charge of the Republican Party, I would also push governors and others to stop seeking Arizona-style immigration laws at the state level, not just because such things aren't necessarily the best policy but also because they need to recalculate their political self-interest.

Maybe, maybe not. Since he failed to offer specifics, we'll never know.

I would say Romney's economic plan was "Trust me." While that might work for Indiana Jones or Michael Westen, it probably would not be a good plan for any politician, let alone one who has taken opposite positions of most issues.

Which reminds me: anyone who voted against John Kerry because he was an out of touch elitist flip-flopper who then voted for Romney should hang his head low in shame.

People didn't like him as much as they liked the other guy.

Of course he's a RINO.

No matter what tripe he tossed around during the campaign trying to win over extremists, all you have to do is look at his record.

No extreme conservative would have been elected in Massachussetts of all places, and he served there pretty successfully. He also instituted universal health care and signed an automatic weapons ban.

Wow...what an extreme conservative. He also apparently didn't turn Mass into the new Afghanistan with a horrible theocracy.

Believe me, every Republican who called him conservative and every Dem who tried to paint him as some kind of Republican Taliban did nothing but make me giggle for weeks.

This^.