[adam42381]

The Republican party MUST find a way to appeal to the minority voters if they want a chance in future elections. We held a mock election yesterday at the high school where I teach, which has a high minority population. Each student was given a ballot during homeroom and the votes were collected by the teachers to be tallied. We have approximately 1,800 students. I don't know what the exact figures were on how many students voted, but based on my class and other teachers I spoke with, nearly everyone participated. The total percentages looked like this: Obama 81%, Romney 8%, Write-In 11%. The only student in my class who did not vote for Obama used his vote to write in Cornholio.

[RubberMallet]

i think its easy to freak out a bit here about all of that but really they just need to not pull out some old crusty silver spoon sucking fuddy duddy.

[NotAJerry]

Blue collar manufacturing jobs were mostly unionized and leaned Democrat.

Most of them are in China .... By the way the stock market is tanking today?

And is 5,000 points above where it was when Bush left office.

[TH Spangler]

Blue collar manufacturing jobs were mostly unionized and leaned Democrat.

Most of them are in China .... By the way the stock market is tanking today?

And is 5,000 points above where it was when Bush left office.

Print some more money and we can make it "look" even better!!!!!

[jbock13]

Exactly. NAJ, you're a fiscal hawk, you'd know that increase is due to inflation.

[El Scorcho]

i think its easy to freak out a bit here about all of that but really they just need to not pull out some old crusty silver spoon sucking fuddy duddy.

That sure wouldn't hurt.

[Purple Haize]

BTW, Romney went 0-8 in the "battleground" states. That's not because everybody, everywhere is looking for a handout. It's because he was un-electable against any decent offering from the Dems.

1-7. He won NC

Not surprisingly I disagree with you. Here is part of a post from the 'real' election thread

The thought that struggle and hardships of individual freedom and liberty can lead to untold success in this country in no longer the majority view. The difference isn't great, but it is enough. I spoke with a teenager yesterday about the reward hard work can bring. We talked about individual responsibility and risk. I asked her to think about the Pilgrims. How much courage and guts it took to hop on a boat, go somewhere you have never been, have nothing there when you arrive, and build it all from scratch. She never thought of it that way.But that is what America was founded on. That is the type of attitude that is no longer rewarded or quite frankly even encouraged any more.

[Humble_Opinion]

So let me get this straight. If 70% of Latinos vote for Democrats based on "Hey, the Republicans hate you!!!", how exactly do you combat that message?

Cause one would be a fool to even try. You can't win an argument with such shallow minds.

I understand the sentiment and in general, I'd agree. However, I'd say that this go around the typical liberal media/democrat message about how Republicans want to privatize Medicare/Medicaid and take away benefits from seniors did not work. And it's because for once, the Republicans finally stood their ground and argued the facts, instead of backing off.

The GM bailout was another position handled incredible poorly by Romney’s camp. The loan worked why would you continue to be against something that worked? Romney tries to act like he wouldn’t have done the same thing when in reality the Bush administration just got done bailing out Wall Street in identical fashion.

I have to disagree here. Sure, in the short-term the loan worked, but in the long-run it will not. The fundamental problems that caused the issue with the company were not dealt with, and if anything, the fact that the unions now own part of the company only exacerbates their problems. The market cap on GM is like half of what it was before the bailout. The U.S. Treasury would lose billions if they tried to recover what GM owes them. Mitt's argument here was that for the long-term, the bailout was a bad thing.

I agree with everyone else though about the social issues. Republicans and the "Christian Right" might need to calm down a little on some of these issues if we ever want to win another election and keep the socialists from ruining the economy forever. And yes - we do need to reach out more the hispanic vote. However, I would argue that we did do that this time around. Don't you remember the speakers at the Convention? It was a melting pot of conservative, successful, make your own way political leaders. The problem is the media for a long time has painted Republicans as being racist, and anti-immigration and it's still paying dividends for them. We have to fight that now if we are ever going to make in-roads into that demographic.

[Sly Fox]

Which is why the GOP is likely investing a great deal in the coming months to start coaching up possible candidates like Jindal, Rubio, Haley & Cruz.

I am curious to see how the celebrity that came with the GOP run impacts Ryan moving forward. He doesn't appear to have been saddled with as much baggage as Sarah Palin following her unsuccessful run. And Congressional Republicans will likely give him a more visible role moving forward.

[Humble_Opinion]

Sly - without a doubt, Ryan did not hurt himself with the run. Boehner is going to be the frontman for the GOP on any dealings with the Democrats, but you have to expect that Ryan's going to be the go-to guy on the budget matters for the GOP moving forward.

[jbock13]

Never fear! John Boehner is still Speaker. That's a relief, he's done a good job fighting Obama so far... oh... wait actually...

[JK37]

What I learned from this election: overall, the nation still seems to be center-right. But a lot of people who claim to be moderate are, in fact, liberal. And there is a massive difference between "moderate" and "Independent".

[From the class of 09]

The GM bailout was another position handled incredible poorly by Romney’s camp. The loan worked why would you continue to be against something that worked? Romney tries to act like he wouldn’t have done the same thing when in reality the Bush administration just got done bailing out Wall Street in identical fashion.

I have to disagree here. Sure, in the short-term the loan worked, but in the long-run it will not. The fundamental problems that caused the issue with the company were not dealt with, and if anything, the fact that the unions now own part of the company only exacerbates their problems. The market cap on GM is like half of what it was before the bailout. The U.S. Treasury would lose billions if they tried to recover what GM owes them. Mitt's argument here was that for the long-term, the bailout was a bad thing.

The loan to GM worked and has been repaid. The equity ownership is where the problem lies (I think we agree) long term as far as US tax payer is concerned. Most people don't understand this and Obama jumped on the first point as the saving grace when it was the 2nd that saved GM.
A controlled bankruptcy would have most likely involved some type of government credit (loan) as no one was touching GM at that time. Which is what Romney kinda/sorta supported. Romney needed to make the GM loan a non-issue he could have done this by hugging Obama’s line or explaining how a bankruptcy (11, 12, 13, or a new chapter) would have worked. He did neither.

[jbock13]

The GM loan has not been repaid.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorial ... ailout.htm

[From the class of 09]

The GM loan has not been repaid.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorial ... ailout.htm

It was paid back with prior received TARP funds. Your article references more the $50ish billion given to GM but most of that was given as an equity purchase in the new GM. Only 6.7b was loaned to the new GM (and was repaid by previously received TARP funds). The old GM does/did have about $1b in debt that I'm pretty sure won't be paid back. We won't see the majority of that $50b back so I agree with that piece but your article was purposefully misleading in trying to suggest the government loaned GM $50b in actuality was much closer to $7b and that $7b was repaid.

Either way it was a crappy situation but the loan to GM was repaid technically. This was also a misleading statement when Obama said it as he tried to make is sound like it was the full $50b. In actuality only $7b was repaid and it came from previously received TARP funds in an escrow account (Bush era I believe).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/busin ... .html?_r=0
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... s-auto-co/
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/05/general-motors-debt/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/04/ ... r-bailout/

[Humble_Opinion]

'09 - As JB pointed out... the loans have not been paid back in full yet. Also, he did explain often how he would have handled the auto bailouts. The problem is, the media never picked up on it (surprise surprise) and instead kept toting the Obama mantra that Osama was died and GM was alive...

In the end, it wouldn't have mattered anyways. Mitt could have held a 30 minute lecture on his stance and a majority of the country (including those in OH) would not have understood it. That's what the election results say about our country.

Oh - just read this. The two largest one day drops in the markets after election both occurred under Obama (-5% in '08 and -2.4% in '12).

Also, now that the elections have occurred - the defense industry (which has a heavy presence in VA) has started announcing layoffs as a result of the sequester.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49729998

[From the class of 09]

'09 - As JB pointed out... the loans have not been paid back in full yet. Also, he did explain often how he would have handled the auto bailouts. The problem is, the media never picked up on it (surprise surprise) and instead kept toting the Obama mantra that Osama was died and GM was alive...

The government loan issued as part of the new GM restructure has been repaid. Not sure what you all are looking at

What loans are you talking about that haven't been repaid? I assume the old money I referenced earlier, you can talk about that old money all day but it's considered a sunk cost.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/busin ... .html?_r=0
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... s-auto-co/
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/05/general-motors-debt/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/04/ ... r-bailout/

[DB89]

i think its easy to freak out a bit here about all of that but really they just need to not pull out some old crusty silver spoon sucking fuddy duddy.

Add: ...and then pick his clone to be the running-mate.

[Humble_Opinion]

i think its easy to freak out a bit here about all of that but really they just need to not pull out some old crusty silver spoon sucking fuddy duddy.

Add: ...and then pick his clone to be the running-mate.

Soo... you're saying Ryan is an old crusty spoon sucking fuddy duddy?

Do you know anything about Paul Ryan?

[DB89]

I'm with you....I was just making the point that there isn't much distinction, from a voter demographic perspective, between the two.

[Humble_Opinion]

I'm with you....I was just making the point that there isn't much distinction, from a voter demographic perspective, between the two.

Okay, I see where you're coming from. Sorry if it seemed like I was jumping on you there...

[TH Spangler]

There are a couple of riffs within Dem's that needs some light. They give immigration "lip service only" and get 70% of the Hispanic vote. But if you talk to Dem's "individually" you find out they despise immigrants being here, and feel like they are cutting into their government entitlements, using up their health benefits and taking their jobs.

And at some point Christians of color will return to their true conservative roots. Herman Cain was on the right track with his "Empowerment Zones". I think it was part of Romney's jobs plan, but wasn't verbalized after Cain was "personally" wacked by the Democratic machine. Someone needs to get out there and address inner city needs with more than food stamps, and contraceptives. When you speak privately to Dem's of color you find out they do not support same sex marriage, removing God from their platform etc.

The Dem's have done a marvelous job of uniting people with very little in common.

[jbock13]

Mitt Romney has 3 million less votes than McCain had in 08. So did they just magically disappear? And what if he found a way to appeal to Ron Paul supporters, instead of being controlled by the Bill Krystols of the world.

I don't blame Romney. He did all he could. The freeloaders won. Romney was wrong about the 47%, it's more like 51%.

[LUminary]

So, Obama won surprisingly (to many of us) easily because of demographics (could Romney have won if Rubio had been the running mate?), the Santa-Claus factor, Obama and the dems' massive and efficient get-out-the-vote machine, Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie's 30-minute wet kiss to Obama, the apparent fact that this nation is no longer center-right (I think JK37 is right on that "moderates" are basically liberal), single women fearing a return to the dark ages, mainstream media bias, the demonization of Romney, Romney's play-it-safe mode in the late stages of the campaign and sole focus on the economy (it wasn't just about the stupid economy after all), Obama's celebrity status and some say because of the trillions of Ron Paul supporters out there that could have made the difference. I probably left some factors out but I'm still lingering in a fog of depression and not thinking clearly, although I'm coming out of it gradually. Today is better.

I recognize many of these factors now but would not have before Tuesday. I realize even more that being old, white, christian and conservative is not a great place to be in politics and probably otherwise (except for the Christian part). It was an unpleasant eye-opening experience, and unexpected especially coming on the heels of the 2010 butt-kicking dished out by the tea party. Where was the tea party in 2012, by the way?

One thing I have not heard addressed and I still don't understand: why did North Carolina and Indiana (the two states that flipped from Obama in '08 to rather decisively Romney in 2012) behave as many of us expected while all of the other states in question trended otherwise. What made NC and Indiana so different?

EDIT: As the fog continued to lift, I thought of and added more factors to the "why Romney lost" litany.

[jmdickens]

NC had a few things

1. Democrat Governor who came in 2008 was awful and was so bad, she didn't even consider running a second term. We picked a good one in NC to replace her. (R) I voted Republican for governor.