Why Mitt Romney Lost
By now we know that Barack Obama has been re-elected to President of the United States. Over the week we will continue to get more information of the demographics of the race which will be really interesting. But this blog post is about why and how Romney lost the election. I think there are a few events and missteps that lost him key voters. Here is my List
1. The Auto-Bailout: Back in 2008-2009 when the financial crisis was in full swing Mitt Romney wrote an article now famously titled 'Let Detroit go Bankrupt." This article was written about the failing auto companies Chrysler and General Motors. He argued that in order to save these companies was to let them go through a managed bankruptcy and let them get funding through the private sector. Many people, including me, point to this article and belief as the chief reason Romney lost Ohio. This article turned the blue collar, auto country in the rust belt. He gave away Michigan and Ohio due to this article. A small mistake that meant so much shows just how important the auto industry is to Americans.
2. Immigration reform: One biggest pivots Romney tried to make during his general election campaign was on immigration reform. Some of the most conservative talk during the primaries was on immigration reform. One of the crazy and funnest moments was when Romney coined the phrase "Self deportation" during one of the primary debates. This stance during the primaries killed Romney, he will lose the Hispanic vote by 10 plus points and this was a main reason. This will be a topic of huge debate in the republican party. They cannot keep their stance on immigration and win national races, it will be something to watch.
3. 47 percent and general gaffs: For some reason the Romney campaign could not get out of its own way. Many gaffes and distractions seemed to come out at the worst times. Right when Romney would get some good news and take advantage of the bad economy something like the 47 percent would come up. It speaks to the disorganization of the Romney Campaign. This cost him many important moments and not until the 1st debate could get anything going.
4. "War on Women": This democratic coined phrase was a blanket term for all of the anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive talk from the republican primaries. Candidates like Todd Akin and Rick Santorum lead the party to a far right social position. These positions defined the republicans in many Woman's eyes. The media covered these gaffes and events like nothing else. I believe that the Republican Party inability to stop talking about rape and abortion lost them control of the senate and possibly the presidency.
5. Romney's Business experience: Romney's business background and bipartisan work in Massachusetts was considered to be the strongest reason to vote for Romney. This was going to be the staple of the Romney campaign, something we would hear about one very ad, every debate until Nov. 7th. Obama would have no counter and Mitt would cruise into the White House to save the economy. But a tough primary battle that coined the phrase "vulture capitalism" and tough ads from supposed allies, Mitt's business experience soon became something Mitt couldn't talk about. The scary and complicated world of private equity was hard to explain and easy to degrade. Obama hit hard and fast to identify Bain Capital with images of job killing big company that will leave with all your money as fast as it came. The Obama campaigned turn Bain into a dirty word and destroyed Romney's main talking point. This lead Romney to have to run a shallow and unspecific campaign and ended up costing him the election.
Erik's Election Final Comments:
Mitt Romney was a good candidate, good entrepreneur and a good man. I have no doubt that if he would have won he would tried his hardest to help America achieve our highest hopes. He did not by any means run a spotless campaign and i have significant disagreements with him on many issues. But their is one thing that we agree on, politics isn't everything and it never will be. What matters is what happens after the election, hoping we can put aside our differences and work together.
posted by Anonymous @ 1:03 AM
11 Comments:
I think that your points really cover everything that lead to Romney's ultimate defeat. I watched the election coverage on NBC, and they reported some demographics. Obama won the votes of blacks, latinos, women, and young people. I might be forgetting some. But this pretty much leaves the only demographic that Mitt took as older, white men. Based on your list, it makes sense. Older white men was the only group that Romney, or someone in the political party didn't manage to offend somehow.
Romney never offended me...In fact, I agree with many issues that he does. I think some of your guys' thoughts are very closed minded.
Meghan made a slight generalization, but shes right, he offended a majority of these groups. Do you disagree with that?
No, I agree. Generalization is a much better word rather than closed minded. I agree with the generalization but for me, he didn't offend me.
I don't think it was so much about race and gender as it was about money. From what I knew about Romney, he seemed to have pretty good record of being successful financially. And I think with the economy the way it stil is, people were probably more concerned with fiscal issues which effects all types of minorities. And I think the quote unquote generalization made here about older white men being the sole demographic appealing to Romney makes some sense in the fact that most people who are financially well of are mostly white males.
I agree with you Jordan about the financial aspect. Romney proved that he could get a state out of debt and into revenue. That wasn't the problem.
Thanks, Eric, for a very comprehensive analysis of the deciding factors. I think Romney made the best of an impossible situation. He was forced to play to the hard right during the primaries and run to the middle (where he is actually more comfortable) in the general election, particularly at the very end. Who could do that and not look like a hypocrite?
And sorry for calling you "Eric"!
Its cool i get that a lot. I think we can safely say that the hard right (Tea Party) has effectively cost the senate nearly 5 seats in the senate and possibly the presidency. They presented their world view to the american people and it was rejected.
Do you think the tea party will stay awhile or will it die off?
They won't die off, Herman Cain thinks they are going to form some what of a third party (think Ross Perot). They are extreme social conservatives that don't even know what kind of economic policy they agree with. They will continue to dominate the primaries and give us candidates like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. I don't see how its going to change unless they come to their senses and realize they are holding the country back. I don't see that ever happening.
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