Will Changes in the Electorate Sink Romney?

[Geee]

American Thinker:

There's a notion floating on the right and left. It goes like this: the electorate has changed so dramatically that it favors President Obama's re-election. Will Mitt Romney be a November victim of generational and demographic tyranny? Or will external factors -- including the president's dismal performance and policies -- impact the electoral equation to Romney's advantage?

Mitt Romney's election strategy needs to account for changes in the electorate, making appeals that resonate with contemporary voters. But an updated appeal doesn't mean Romney should jettison core conservative principles -- just the opposite.

The year 2012 is a golden opportunity for Mitt Romney, entrepreneurs, and enterprising Republicans to expand their party's franchise. The GOP hasn't had a better chance since Jimmy Carter's 1980 failed re-election bid to showcase practical conservative solutions to the nation's problems. In fact, 2012 is a "teachable moment" for voters among key non-Republican constituencies. A teachable moment can be the stuff of a winning moment for the GOP, short- and longer-term.

Despite the propaganda, women, young voters, and Hispanics aren't monolithic. Segments among those cohorts are persuadable. A crippled economy made worse by President Obama's policies, and the president's spendthrift ways, make more than some voters receptive to being taught -- voters who otherwise would be closed to Republican arguments.

Sky-high expectations for Mr. Obama's presidency -- expectations that were ridiculous in the first place -- have pumped up disillusionment with the president. This must be particularly so among Mr. Obama's core constituencies, who comprise more-than-die-hard true believers.

That doesn't mean Romney will win majorities of women, youth, or Hispanics; he doesn't have to. Romney needs to cut into those groups enough to add to his base vote, which helps build majorities in battleground states, like Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Yes, Romney needs a robust turnout from his base constituencies; at this time, he'll get that less because of his candidacy than because of any lack of intensity in opposition to Mr. Obama.

The president's main challenge is pumping up his deflated base voters (blacks excepted). In the early going, tellingly, Mr. Obama has spent valuable time appealing to his voters. Or, more aptly, Mr. Obama's campaign, Democratic Party organs, and left-leaning super-PACs have spent time and money trying to drive wedges between women and the GOP, between young voters and Republicans, and between Hispanics and...you guessed it: the GOP.