Why Obama Won — and What Conservatives Must Do

[Geee]

PJMedia:

There are no ways to get around the facts. For Republicans and conservatives and independents who wanted a new direction for our country, the victory of President Obama is sad — and for many of us, unexpected. Those conservatives who assured us with statistics, theories, and arguments about Romney winning the White House, even in a landslide, should be eating their hats.

In the past week, conservatives who usually disagree with each other about many things, including Fred Barnes, Peggy Noonan, Dick Morris, my PJM colleague Roger Kimball, George F. Will, Karl Rove, and Michael Barone, among others, provided analysis and arguments, all of which led to predictions of an inevitable Romney victory. Instead of the outcome they all looked forward to and assumed would be inevitable given Obama’s failures and the state of the economy, they found that their theories collapsed as the returns poured in. Instead of a long night, by 11:30 p.m. even Fox News had called the election for the president. Yes, Karl Rove thought their statistics desk called it too early, but 15 minutes later he too agreed that Ohio had gone for the president.

 

So what happened? I had been trying to warn my optimistic friends in recent days that I thought Obama would win, and was regularly greeted with a slew of polls meant to prove I was wrong. So here are some of my thoughts and reactions, written before I can be influenced by the pundits who will be writing in tomorrow morning’s newspapers and appearing on TV talk shows.

[Draggingtree]

Baloney

 

 

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | November 7th, 2012 at 01:30 AM | 18

 

The usual hand wringing is occurring now about social conservatives causing the GOP to lose.

 

Todd Akin lost because he swallowed his foot and kept gagging on it, not because he is pro-life.

 

Richard Mourdock was beaten by a Democrat who ran as a pro-lifer.

 

As for the so called “war on women,”

 

http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/07/baloney/

[Valin]

Baloney

 

 

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | November 7th, 2012 at 01:30 AM | 18

 

The usual hand wringing is occurring now about social conservatives causing the GOP to lose.

 

Todd Akin lost because he swallowed his foot and kept gagging on it, not because he is pro-life.

 

Richard Mourdock was beaten by a Democrat who ran as a pro-lifer.

 

As for the so called “war on women,”

 

http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/07/baloney/

 

Mia Love...LOST.....Allen West....LOST.....Martha McSally....LOST....DFL takes complete control of Mn....it appears Eric doesn't really understand this was not just a loss, this was an ass kicking.

[nickydog]

I didn't know about Mia Love and Martha McSally. That is really sad.

[Draggingtree]

PJMedia:

 

There are no ways to get around the facts. For Republicans and conservatives and independents who wanted a new direction for our country, the victory of President Obama is sad — and for many of us, unexpected. Those conservatives who assured us with statistics, theories, and arguments about Romney winning the White House, even in a landslide, should be eating their hats.

In the past week, conservatives who usually disagree with each other about many things, including Fred Barnes, Peggy Noonan, Dick Morris, my PJM colleague Roger Kimball, George F. Will, Karl Rove, and Michael Barone, among others, provided analysis and arguments, all of which led to predictions of an inevitable Romney victory. Instead of the outcome they all looked forward to and assumed would be inevitable given Obama’s failures and the state of the economy, they found that their theories collapsed as the returns poured in. Instead of a long night, by 11:30 p.m. even Fox News had called the election for the president. Yes, Karl Rove thought their statistics desk called it too early, but 15 minutes later he too agreed that Ohio had gone for the president.

 

So what happened? I had been trying to warn my optimistic friends in recent days that I thought Obama would win, and was regularly greeted with a slew of polls meant to prove I was wrong. So here are some of my thoughts and reactions, written before I can be influenced by the pundits who will be writing in tomorrow morning’s newspapers and appearing on TV talk shows.

 

 

Status Quo Ante

 

 

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | November 7th, 2012 at 01:15 AM

 

Like when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, we now know what happens when a candidate so weak anybody can beat him meets a candidate so weak he cannot beat anybody. Americans vote for the status quo. $6 billion later, Americans voted for the status quo. Karl Rove, call your donors.

 

Republicans will keep the House. Democrats will keep the Senate. Obama will keep the White House.

 

It is what it is. The next two years are going to be some of the most fun and exciting years within the modern American conservative movement.

 

We know in American politics that nothing is permanent. The question we are going to have to assess is whether Barack Obama’s coalition is a Democratic coalition or a Barack Obama coalition. My personal opinion is that Barack Obama built a winning coalition for Barack Obama and it may not translate to a long term Democratic coalition. Just ask Minority Leader Pelosi and that now endangered creature known as the Democratic Governor.

 

As the jockeying for 2016 begins soon (and it will begin very soon) we will find out.

 

The Obama campaign ran a very good campaign. The Republicans did not. There was no fraud. There was no stealing the election. There was just a really good ground game from Barack Obama and a lot of smoke and mirrors from Team Romney and outside charlatans, many of whom will now go work for Republican Super PACs making six figure salaries, further draining the pockets of rich Republicans when not on television explaining how awesome and expert they are. Whether you can bring yourself to say it or not, like it or not, Barack Obama is, today, your President.

 

There will be a lot of blame to go around, but, if Republicans are honest, they’ll have to concede

 

http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/07/status-quo-ante/

[Draggingtree]

GOP needs a facelift

 

 

Party a loser if it won’t lure women, Latinos

 

 

By Joe Battenfeld

Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - Updated 3 hours ago

 

Republicans had everything going for them. A horrible economy. A weak incumbent. Motivated voters.

 

Now it’s time for the GOP to face reality and clean house. They need a new message, and new messengers.

 

Republicans and Mitt Romney have only themselves to blame for their staggering defeat. It wasn’t Sandy’s fault, Candy Crowley’s fault or Chris Christie’s fault.

 

There are some glaring reasons why President Obama won re-election. Now GOP leaders have to learn the lessons from this debacle.

 

The biggest issue the party faces is winning back women. GOP candidates once again lost big among female voters, and that’s a big problem. Just ask defeated U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who got destroyed by largely false Democratic attacks portraying his voting record as anti-woman.

 

Republicans need to reassess their hard-line position against abortion rights, and do everything they can to dispel the image that the party is unfriendly toward women. Putting more women like New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte in leadership positions in the party would be a good start.

 

Another huge issue Republicans need to address is the Latino vote, the fastest growing group in the nation

 

http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20221107gop_in_need_of_facelift_party_a_loser_if_cant_lure_women_latinos

I say Bull to Joe's article that we lost the women's vote, but yes we lost even more Latino votes than 2008.

[Draggingtree]

What Happened?

 

 

By Rich Galen · November 7, 2012

 

Obama won. Not by a lot, but by more than enough.

 

In the end it came down to the battleground states, and President Obama won most of them by slim, but decisive, margins.

 

Florida : Obama +1

Ohio: Obama +2

Virginia: Obama +3

Colorado: Obama +3

New Hampshire: Obama +5

Wisconsin: Obama +5

Iowa: Obama +6

Michigan: Obama +7

 

Of the nine battleground states, only North Carolina went into Mitt Romney's column by 3 percentage points.

 

As an interested viewer, the night started off with exit polls showing Obama with a slight lead in all of those states. When you've drunk the Kool-Aid, as I had, you simply don't believe them; or you remind others how wrong exit polls have been in the past; and/or you pontificate about the finer points of "poll weighting" (even if you don't quite understand them yourself).

 

The fact that the exit polls mirrored the late pre-election polls make your stomach churn and you have to first principles: In a close election it is better to be a little bit ahead than a little bit behind in the polls.

 

As meaningful results began be reported, it became pretty clear, pretty early that Obama would be re-elected. North Carolina took way too long to be decided. It should have rolled early for Romney. At about 9:30 last night about 80 percent of the votes in Florida had been tallied and less than a thousand votes separated the two men.

 

Virginia

,

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/15362

[Draggingtree]

November 07, 2012

 

Defeat? No Not Defeat.

 

I've been listening to a lot of the chatter since President Obama won reelection.

A lot of chatter about demographics and why Republicans lost and can't win. Suggestions that we change, sell out our principals for the Presidency. Questions about Obama's policy and record and how could that happen?

 

 

Well the truth of the matter is its personality. People vote for whom they like, at least a great number of them. So that personality that we first saw make that great speech at the Democratic convention is more of a factor than we like to think. I don't want to discount entirely what the pundits are saying. Those are things you need to compete but in the end people vote for whom they like.

Gore did not lose to Bush over policy, its people disliked Gore so much. Reagan could win and then afterward do whatever he wanted campaign promise or not and it didn't matter. People liked him much to the chagrin of the political classes. Folks just like Bill Clinton more than George Herbert Walker Bush and they don't dislike Bush. Its not you its me.

Romney ran as good a campaign as he possibly could, much better than John McCain. Dead to rights he should win but...... the problem is not the policy its Obama himself.

Now I'll give you that the right does need to tweek some policy. I feel that they have an opening on liberty, defending people's rights from government intrusion and making hay with the more libertarian of those among us. The second is on fiscal policy, do good fiscal policy and mean it. Don't just talk good fiscal policy, do good fiscal policy.

Out of all the numbers that bode well for Obama the truth is that even with the demographic switch, the more brown America, more voters identify themselves as "conservative." A fact which is reflected in the House of Representatives. The same little brown folks who returned Obama to office also returned the same congress as a check on Obama. This is a country of checks and balances and the people want that check on Obama just as they would any person in that office.

So what you're telling us is that Republicans need their own Obamamessiah?

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/214144.php

[SrWoodchuck]

Thanks, Sweet @Geee!

 

A scathing comment from the PJ link:

 

Lydia

 

Of course the knives come out.

 

We’ve already witnessed the escalating violence,crime,racism,lack of morals and hatred of Obama worshippers.

 

The great desire of liberals to be unemployed dependents who petulantly demand everything for free and childishly demand attention seeking from a pseudo mommy on the backs of tax payers .

 

So destroy those evil people who build companies and create jobs.Have unions demand $70 an hour for $20 worth of work.

Create $5 trillion more debt.

 

Abort all American children and import 3rd world breeding machines who promptly go on welfare to replace them.Be proud you care so little about yourself you’d sleep with anything and hate your own children enough to kill them.

 

Tell yourself you are creating a new,superior country with people so stupid they vote for fantasies and skin color.

 

You won the same thing you voted for in 2008. More unemployment ,more welfare,more crime,more dead Americans and more illegals sucking up your tax dollars.Enjoy your same sex adventures.

[Rokke]

Romney got less Republican votes than John McCain. That is something we are going to have to think about. What caused our party to turn out in even worse numbers than 2008? I didn't think that was possible. The dems don't have to work very hard if we defeat ourselves.