Why Romney Lost
I happened to have to research the famous "you didn't build that" quote; I was stunned once again by how the right-wing punditry deliberately distorted what was the obvious meaning of that speech. Here is a good summary of the "controversy" (aka smear campaign) with a great clip from Jon Stewart -- make sure you watch the Obama-Romney mash-up at the end.The bottom line: when you best campaign strategy was to generate bat-shit crazy misinterpretations of your opponents statements ("grade-school Marxism"!), you really have no campaign of which to speak.
Romney did about as well as any republican could I think. The GOP brand is tarnished these days. He managed to convince that he was a serious, capable, basically decent guy. Considering some of the scariness we saw from the Santorum/Bachman/Gingrich types, that's an achievement.
ReplyDeleteThe election might or might not have gone otherwise had it been over Obamacare, or had Romney been more radical on the economy. Instead he banked on "I'm not scary" being enough. Maybe at $4 or $5 gas it would have been. With social issues to the fore, it never had much chance. Alack and alas.