Why did the Republicans lose so badly?

[toast]

President Obama was re-elected handily. It wasn't even close. The Democrats picked up seats in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. In the Senate the Democrats had to defend 23 seats and the Republicans only 10. There were numerous opportunities for the Republicans to pick up seats and take over the Senate and yet the Democrats expanded their majority. The Republicans had more money than they could spend and still lost badly.

Just for the sake of discussion let's leave President Obama and the Democrats out of this. What was the main reason or reasons the Republicans fell short? Especially in the President race.

Was the problem the message or the messenger?

[kantuckyII]

Maybe by the EC it wasn't close but the popular vote was VERY CLOSE - while that may not matter as far as determining the election result, it's HUGE when he tries to carry out his liberal delusional agenda.

Furthermore, we've not even seen that cat begin his second term & scandal is popping up everywhere! not to mention, the economy is beginning to stagger

[ManitouDan]

Romney allowed himself to painted as an uncaring , out of touch human , just because his family has wealth ( which he shares in a ginormous way !) he feel prey to Obama's team painting him as something he is not ... the night he blew it was when Candy Crowely asked " what is the most common misconception about you" and he didnt answer " the misconception the democrat party has painted about me telling you I dont care about everyone" as obviously his giving proves that he does. And my promises to all americans I wont leave you behind as Mr Obama has attempted to portray "

[KVDW]

. What was the main reason or reasons the Republicans fell short? Especially in the President race.

very simply 51.4 % of the stupid assed Americans want and think they are entitled to be given free "stuff" by the government and they voted for the guy that will give them free "stuff". Plain and simple.
mostly parasites.

[Paladin]

Someone is delusional. Rs lost the popular vote by more than 3 MILLION votes. And that was with all the VOTER SUPRESSION that they engaged in with phoney fraud charges. Do you know how many votes were challenged on dubious grounds that may yet be counted, most of which are D votes ? I, for one, hope the Rs never change. Besides the demographic tidal wave moving against them, their policies and politics are lethal. Women are the majority , and yet, the Rs are against all female issues. Minorities are soon to be the majority, and yet, Rs are against a whole host of issues -- racial discrimination, immigration, programs for the poor, etc. Then there are the bedroom issues where suddenly the R what govt involved -- gays, gay marriage, etc. Opposition to the Middle Class and favoring the Rich. The list is long, but I hope the Rs keep it up. Don't change a thing. Keep the social war going on people. Continue to favor business over people. The Rs are no longer relevant to today's society. In 11 Govenor's races. Ds won 7, including 3 in Red States. Rs will continue to lose future elections. I just hope they keep the same policies. It will be a cakewalk.

[kantuckyII]

OH BOLOGNA Paladin! the only voter supression that went down was the US Military

[Paladin]

Fact -- Rs lost the LAST 5 OF 6 PRESIDENTAL ELECTION POPULAR VOTES.

FACT -- more women vote than men. Most women vote Ds.

FACT -- the white majority % vote for Rs has been dropping for the last 6 elections. Rs now have a bare edge

FACT -- the Blacks vote way over 90% for Ds

FACT -- Hispanics vote over 70% for Ds

FACT -- Asians vote almost 60% for Ds

FACT -- the rising numbers of youth who vote ( 18-29) vote over 60% for Ds

FACT-- more people register to vote as Ds than Rs

FACT-- a majority of Independents lean and vote for Ds over Rs.

The future ?

[abuck76]

Romney got less votes than McCain or John Kerry!!!!!..........Obama won by 3 MILLION votes!!...That is huge.....But then again tuck does not understand..........God Guns and Gays is not a mantra that will ever win again........And the Cons are still screaming it, and that makes me happy as a lib......... :12224

[NYBuckeye96]

Romney got less votes than McCain or John Kerry!!!!!..........Obama won by 3 MILLION votes!!...That is huge.....But then again tuck does not understand..........God Guns and Gays is not a mantra that will ever win again........And the Cons are still screaming it, and that makes me happy as a lib......... :12224

Ignorance, racism and fear mongering simply will not work with the 21st Century Demographics of the United States.

The GOP has to change or die off. Simple as that.

[abuck76]

Agreed, but it is fascinating how the GOP is simply not grasping that concept....God Guns And Gays!!!....Booga Booga...........They are going to whine their way out of being a viable political entity..................... :12224

[ManitouDan]

you guys know Romney ran on a platform that highlighted lots of stuff , none of which was God , guns or gays. the media loves dragging those topics up because they are divisive and not good to R's . be real , at least on demographics you are partly correct.

[abuck76]

But Republicans did..........Romney is just a cog in the wheel....Remember what Norquist said, " we do not need a President with an agenda, we just need him to sign what we send him."............ :12224

[abuck76]

Republicans search for answers about what went wrong in the election
.By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – Thu, Nov 8, 2012.. .


Seeking answers to why their presidential candidate lost the election, the first round of consensus on the right has focused on the Republican need to recalibrate its message to connect with the nation's shifting voting demographics—or, at the very least, acknowledge that the country is changing.

The search for answers about What Went Wrong began almost immediately on election night, a signal that some had already been mulling the possibility of a loss for some time.

"Two obvious lessons so far: It's a different country demographically. And mediocre candidates lose elections," Tucker Carlson, a Fox News contributor and editor in chief of the Daily Caller, posted on Twitter on Tuesday night. He went on to write an essay with Daily Caller publisher Neil Patel, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, about the Republicans' failed attempt to take back the White House.

"The country is changing too fast," Carlson and Patel wrote in their election postmortem. "Most people have the sense that America is different demographically from what it was 20 years ago. But unless they've been reading the latest census data, they have no real idea. The changes are that profound. They're also permanent and likely to accelerate. In order to remain competitive outside Utah, the GOP will have to win new voters, and soon."
According to early data from Election Day, a whopping 75 percent of Latino voters voted for President Barack Obama, an increase from 2008, when the group chose Obama over Sen. John McCain 67 to 31 percent. Obama was also successful among Asian-American voters, who supported the president over Mitt Romney 73 to 26 percent. As expected, Obama won more than 90 percent of the black vote.

"Romney made a conscious decision to blow off Hispanic voters," wrote Red State editor Erick Erickson. "Yes conservatives, we must account for this. The Romney campaign to the Hispanic community was atrocious and, frankly, the fastest growing demographic in America isn't going to vote for a party that sounds like that party hates brown people. That does not mean the GOP must offer up amnesty. It does mean that a group that is a natural fit for the GOP on social issues, must in someway be made to feel comfortable with the GOP."

Long before Tuesday's election, there was a realization among Republicans that the coalitions the party had built and benefited from in years past would no longer be strong enough to win national elections.

"We're nonstarters with these groups. That's what's wrong. It's an unsustainable coalition," former Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis told reporters during a breakfast meeting in September. "We've got to be an open, welcoming party and recognize that we're going to have to broaden our coalition to start winning elections. We are a regional party now.

"If you can't win in these circumstances, what do you do when things are good?" Davis added.

The lack of outreach to minority voters stretched back into the primaries. While Republicans, for instance, campaigned for primary votes in Michigan, a state with the highest concentration of Muslim and Arab Americans, Ron Paul was the only candidate to reach out to those communities. The rest, including Romney, declined to put forth much of an effort. The Republican debates, in which Romney sought to outflank his opponents by tilting to their right on immigration, also may have hurt the Republican candidate among Latinos, who remembered the positions he took only a few months earlier.

Romney himself seemed to realize that Republicans faced a challenge of an expanding Democratic electorate, but he did not seem eager to make efforts to reach it. His secretly recorded comments at an off-the -record fundraiser last spring, in which he told a group of donors that it would be impossible for him to convince "47 percent" of the country to vote for him, were indicative of this fear, which was spreading through the Republican Party.

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney told donors at the time, although the recording of his comments were not made public until Mother Jones magazine unearthed them in September. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it."

Others on the right blamed the loss on Romney's lack of conservative credentials. Despite referring to himself during the primaries as "severely conservative," Romney was, after all, a former governor of a liberal blue state with a moderate record. Republicans aligned with the tea party, many of whom held their noses to support Romney over Obama, lashed out at the party for choosing a candidate they never fully supported in the first place.

"What we got was a weak, moderate candidate, handpicked by the Beltway elites and country club establishment wing of the Republican Party," said Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin at a postelection press conference in Washington.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who warned Republicans about supporting what he called a "Massachusetts moderate" during his primary campaign against Romney, called on Republicans to be more inclusive in their voter outreach methods.

"The question is do they want to, in a disciplined way, create a schedule and a program and include people who are not traditionally Republican?" Gingrich said during a Wednesday interview on CNN's "Starting Point With Soledad O'Brien." "The difference between outreach and inclusion, is outreach is when five white guys have a meeting and call you," he continued. "Inclusion is when you're in the meeting."
....................................................................... :12224

[mustang_lvr]

60,190,138---57,458,819

[Kentucky Trojan]

Perception-wise:

Republicans want to reduce the debt. Democrats want to enlarge it.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

[Paladin]

REALLY ? Is that why W. started with balnced budget and started two major unfunded wars ? An unfunded prescription drug program ? Two major unfunded tax cuts ? Then bailed out the banks, AIG, the mortage companies, etc and after destroying the country financially, hands the mess off to Obama........................ and NOW, you take issue with the debt ?

Thats why you are called Cons.................. as in con job !

[kantuckyII]

Obama said we needed the war in Afghanistan War and put 30,000 more there on taking office. Close to 2,000 have died there under his regime and over 15,000 wounded so take that somewhere else Paladin! It's hogwash!

Libs make good Americans just wanta puke!

[Paladin]

The Rs LOST the election. The above summation is part of the reason. You con job doesn't surprise me. And it didn't con the voters either. History will give the straight story. No con jobs there,

[kantuckyII]

We will fight the libs every step of the way! N the long run, if the US doesn't break up we will reverse!

[abuck76]

Keep thinking that way tuck and cons.......That mentality of "fighting the libs" will cost you the election again.........You do realize that the majority voted with the libs...........60% of people polled want the wealthy to pay more.............You and the cons are way out of touch with reality......Tuck YOUR world is changing so fast it scares you........BUt you keep crying and whining.............I enjoy it.......... :12224