Politics & Current Events
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Romney lost because of...MONEY?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-race-slipped-away-from-romney.html?page=all
Because with billion dollar campaigns and Super PACs, the lack of money was the reason. I am having a really hard time 'buying' this.
Re: Romney lost because of...MONEY?
No. American Crossroads was flush with cash. It was messaging and clinging to one demographic that doomed them.
I very much question this article. Did Rove ghost write it? It seems like premature groundwork for 2016 fundraising.
Bullshitt! This is ridiculous.
This was a record setting campaign in terms of money raised and spent. So they are telling us they lost because they mismanaged a billion dollars?
But hey, we should totes let them manage a trillion.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Mismanaging money is not the same as not having enough money, Don't get me wrong, Obama had a buttload of money - but so did Romney. Obama spent it strategically (e.g., buying airtime well in advance when it was cheaper rather than waiting til the last minute). The GOP needs to realize their disadvantage wasn't in funding, it was in ideas and appeal to women and minorities.
Yes, but anti-Obama factions (the GOP and various super pacs and conservative groups) started ramping up their smear and messaging on Nov 5, 2008.
ETA- in addition...
This article is a prime example of why the GOP failed. They refuse to look inward as to why they lost. They refuse to admit they screwed the pooch by ignoring a large sector of the voting population and trying to win off the white male base.
Until they learn that the moderate and independents count and their issues aren't merely distractions but real issues, they will continue to loose.
CB, did you read the article? (asked respectfully). It doesn't say he mismanaged money but whereas Obama could focus all of his campaign money on the general election, Romney had a primary to fund on top of the general election. Yes, Romney chose not borrow any campaign funds and that was his choice.
And yes, I agree with you the GOP needs to embrace a bigger demographic than just old white men.
I agree, but I also think Romney was more moderate than he showed in the primaries. I find it sad he felt he needed to placate to the tea party folks and run as a severe conservative. And then, when he tried to move to the middle later in the election he was called a flip flopper.
If he had run his campaign on similar principles as he did when he was running for Governor of Massachusetts....he might have had a better chance.
I didn't read that particular article, but I've read other analyses on the way the campaigns spent (when and where they advertised, the rules re waiting for nomination, etc). Romney was not as smart about how he spent. Obama made the same dollar go farther.
I would buy that argument if the election was ran solely by the two candidates. But when you look at how much Super Pac money was poured into it...that can't be ignored. That was a ton of money.
And you have to admit that day one after the 2008 election, the 2012 groundwork was being laid. It didn't matter who the GOP nominated. It was an out Obama battle cry. And that was a smart move for the very reason you stated- Obama didn't have to deal with primaries. But Romney did benefit from that strategy as well. It just didn't crossover to enough mods and indies.
I will agree with that wholeheartedly. It also fed into the notion that he wasn't sincere.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/11/romneys-bumbling-bureaucratic-campaign.html
This (from the blog I am mildly obsessed with) puts a lot of Romney's problems at his inability to connect on the ground to voters, right up to having a colossal failure of a get-out-the-vote project that backfired immensely on election day. For all that Fox and others foresaw Romney's inevitable win by believing Obama incapable of bringing out the young and minority votes again, they way overestimated the ability of the Romney campaign to run as efficiently at the local level.
Unrelated, but I also read a claim that Romney spent $25,000 on victory fireworks. Chuckles?
I agree, Cincy. I may have liked some of his policies - but it was hard to tell which statements he actually stood by.
But I don't think it was just the primaries, he did the same thing with his campaign for governor. He said he was pro-choice, then signed bills based on a pro-life stance. Said he was gay friendly, then acted against the lgbt community and made horrible statements about their families. He was a flip flopped well before the presidential primaries.
He runs on his desire to win, not his convictions.
LOLZ
Romney ran for President for 6 years. Clearly, he should have planned and budgeted better if this is what Republicans want to blame his loss on. He had 2 years at least to raise enough for the primaries. I personally think he was spend happy in the primaries to beat those individuals. Several of the candidates complained that he was winning because he just out spent them. Maybe he should have pulled back a little during the primaries. I will admit that I thought money could buy you the election. I do not believe this to be the case now but maybe he thought that was the only way he could win the primaries.
In a side note, I read that Ann cried when Romney called Obama. They all thought he really was going to win. I could tell when Romney gave his speech and then everyone came out that she had been crying. Whenever I saw her on the trial, she seemed to act entitled to the role of First Lady in my opinion but I actually felt sad for her when I saw her. I was surprised by my feelings based on my previous perceptions of her.
It makes me physically ill that 6 billion dollars was spent on this race.
6 billion.
I remember this too. All things considered, I don't think Romney ran a terrible campaign (there are always gaffes, especially when you are campaigning for that long) and I understand the introspection the R's are doing. But of all the reasons people are citing (and there are many) this has to be the most bs I've seen.