In 2008 the Republican president was extremely unpopular, there was a financial crash, a worrying war and a media pushing two narratives – the possibility of wiping away the scars of racism by electing a black president and an orchestrated demonisation of the GOP VP candidate with lies and sexist insults.
In 2012 the economy was still broken, the worrying war was still simmering away and the Democratic administration was racked with scandals. The Republican candidates were clean cut, inoffensive and apparently competent politicians completely acceptable to the GOP establishment and the media.
( Note -you might find this extremely helpful)
Your task
Explain why the 2012 Republican ticket lost the election and got three and a half million fewer votes than the 2008 ticket
Please send your answers, accompanied with your apologies, to a certain lady in Wasilla, Alaska.
Thank you
.and they didn’t listen to her in Missouri.
The aged pee blog should apologize for calling itself the aged pee blog.
I’ve gotta admit, this shocks me.
Romney won me over, and I have no doubt he would have done a good job. But, the numbers don’t lie. McCain didn’t get all those votes on his merits.
Rommey/Ryan....let alone Sarah.....didn’t promise the takers Obamaphones, free condoms, abortions, gay marriages, and lots of free s**t.
Among other reasons, they lost.
The USA has become a nation of thuggish losers. I’m done.
This is indeed a valid point. I was impacted that Romney didn’t even carry the state he lived in Massachusets, and that Paul Ryan didn’t carry WI. Sara got a lot of TV viewers as well, she has charm, but the Republican National Committee didn’t want her at the convention. I’m sorry Sara.
AND...to Jim Robinson at Free Republic. Thanks for keeping the site running, and all the pages opening up and not crashing like on the 2 debates. Thanks..
Free Republic is kind of like a neighborhood gathering, and I felt consolation in knowing I wasn’t the only one drooping and sad. Thanks to the monitor for keeping Free Republic free from the f word. I did go to Democratic Underground and see they have very foul mouths. I like the expressions that aren’t racist or full of foul language on FR.
I agree. Though she did stand down. That was a huge mistake. Cost us the election.
It is time Sarah.
Stand up. Build the GOP. Give us something to work on, and get us focused.
Right now.
Sarah was my first choice, I couldn't believe that she decided not to run. Sorry, but going on Hannity and preaching to the choir just isn't the same as running.
I think the Mormon thing (whatever that was) mattered to many in the long run. Catholics wavering because of the Obamacare mandate decided they couldn’t vote for a ‘cultist’. And, well, evangelicals are buying into the whole social justice thing. Just a hunch.
Your task
Explain why the 2012 Republican ticket lost the election and got three and a half million fewer votes than the 2008 ticket
Please send your answers, accompanied with your apologies, to a certain lady in Wasilla, Alaska.
Thank you
I’ve been asking the same question all night. No takers
I guess it doesn’t fit into the “we can’t overcome the freebie” meme the talking heads are spewing
Obama fell 10 million votes short of his last campaign but we are to believe it’s demographics we can’t compete with.
All we needed was a ticket to grab 2 million of those who couldn’t hold their nose and vote for him this time around..
Hey Romney, brilliant move keeping Sarah away from the convention....
Sorry Sarah that you are the target of the GOPe stupidity
“..Explain why the 2012 Republican ticket lost the election and got three and a half million fewer votes than the 2008 ticket..”
::::::::::::::::::::
The Republican “establishment” in all their wisdom did it again. RUBIO was worth a solid 2 MILLION votes...that Romney did not get. But they thought this election was about the economy -— HA! —— the Obama voting base barely cared about the economy. We know who and what they are. I wonder if the Repub “establishment” has figured it out yet?
A teachable moment for the Repub party. Sarah P. already knew the answer.
Sarah was the main reason i donated and volunteered in 2008 and bought an additional AR15 in her honor.
2008 Obama/Biden 69,456,897
2008 McCain/Palin 59,934,814
2012 Obama/Biden 58,702,702
Looks like McCain/Palin ran 4 years too early.
Obama/Biden got 10.7 Million fewer votes yesterday than they got in 2008 and still won.
The gop turned their backs to conservatives, and chose to lick the boots and side with the leftists for personal gain. A lot of people, including the gop cheerleaders here on FR, were perfectly willing to throw Palin and the conservatives to the wolves to gain false security. So where does that leave us? Not in a good place unfortunately.
1. Not enforcing immigration laws allowed our country's culture to be co-opted by Latin and Central America illegals and their brand of social justice. They know the role of government is to take care of them.
2. Our own decadent culture has melded with the Latin/Central American socialist culture corrupting their formerly strict Catholic beliefs. Most of them now believe Gay marriage and abortion are OK.
3. Younger Latinos and Blacks see us as uncaring, because we want them to work and earn what they have. Problem is, they don't care about work ethic, unemployment statistics, or personal responsibility. If they don't have something you have, they expect the government to give it to them by taking it from us (taxpayers).
Conclusion: Reconquista is on...mob rule could potentially keep the Democrats in the White House for decades to come and virtually eliminate the Republican party or any other challengers, in time.
Imagine the Democrat party is the only party and Obama is President for life...food for thought.
I just did a quick lookup of the Obama vs McCain popular vote as compared to the Obama vs Romney Popular vote and here is what I see:
Election 2008
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008
2008: Obama: 69,456,897 McCain: 59,934,814
TOTAL VOTES CAST: 129,391,711
Obama Victory Margin: 52.9% to 45.7% (9,522,083 votes)
Obama: 365 EV McCain: 173 EV
_______________________
Election 2012
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2012-election-results
2012: Obama: 60,652,149 Romney: 57,810,390
TOTAL VOTES CAST: 118,462,539 (2,841,759 votes)
Obama Victory Margin: 51.2% to 48.8%
Assuming Obama takes Florida (which as of this writing is still uncalled)...
Obama: 332 EV Romney: 206 EV
___________________
What I find interesting are the following:
1) There were more people who voted in 2008 compared to 2012.
2) McCain got MORE votes in 2008 than Romney in 2012. In fact, McCain got 2,124,424 MORE VOTES than Romney !!
QUESTION : WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE 2,124,424 McCAIN VOTES IN 2012?
3) Obama LOST OVER 8,804,748 Votes in 2012 compared to 2008!!
QUESTION: What happened to those 8,804,748 voters? Did they stay home?
I can only conclude the following, based on the above observations:
* There was LESS ENTHUSIASM by Americans to vote in 2012 than in 2008.
* Contrary to what we were led to believe by the GOP and what some FReepers claim they saw on the ground in their state, REPUBLICANS WERE NOT ENTHUSIASTIC TO VOTE THIS YEAR. In fact, I can see at least 2 Million of them staying home this year compared to 2008 based on the above numbers.
So much for the huge Get Out the Vote Effort, the huge, sellout crowds in Red Rocks Colorado and in Ohio...
* Even though Obama lost over 8 Million votes this year, most of those voters DID NOT switch to Romney, preferring to stay home ( I suspect many of these would be the disappointed youth of 2008 and the socially conservative blacks of 2008. The former still can’t find good jobs and the latter couldn’t vote for a gay marriage supporting candidate. However, they still could not vote for Romney. So, they stayed home ).
Also, I cannot help but conclude that a huge proportion of the GOP base STAYED HOME in 2012. Otherwise, where were the over 2 million votes that went to McCain in 2008?
This was a self-inflicted loss on the part of the Republicans.
They/We lose simply because of too few votes.
Ballot iniatives tend to energize the base, but even more so the opposition.
It is much easier to roll off the couch to oppose something than it is to support something.
Ryan/Palin 2016!
Hmmm... comparing 2012 exit polling to 2008, and things get more confusing than ever. I had a passing thought that maybe it was the vaunted independents that didn’t turn out, but this appears to not be the case.
Rounded to the nearest percent, the D/R/I turnout in 2012 was 38/32/29; in 2008, it was 39/32/29, virtually identical. That means that the roughly 10% in turnout was essentially across the board.
Democrats: in 2008, only 89% of Democrats voted for Obama, with 10% voting for McCain. Obama did better among self-identified Democrats in 2012, winning 92-7.
Republicans: On the flip side, McCain had nearly the same 2008 margin as Obama, with 90% of Republicans as compared to Obama’s 9%. Romney performed better with Republicans in 2012, winning 93-6.
Independents: The biggest gain by Romney over McCain was in independents. In 2008, Obama won them 52-44, whereas Romney won them 50-45 in 2012.
Summary: Romney over-performed McCain, percentage-wise, in both Republicans and Independents, and under-performed in Democrats. The higher proportion of Democrats to Republicans or Independents offset some of the gains Romney made in the latter. The big question mark is why was turnout down pretty much across the board, and why so evenly? Nevertheless, the concern must be that despite Obama’s unpopularity, the national turnout was essentially unchanged from 2008.
Ryan/Palin 2016?