Posted on 11/07/2012 10:29:18 AM PST by chessplayer
What happened to all that Republican enthusiasm we heard talk about since the Tea Party took America by storm?
With 95 percent of Tuesday's ballots counted, it appears Mitt Romney could end up with less votes than John McCain got in 2008 when all the planets lined up against the GOP.
At press time, Romney has 56,972,497 votes.
In 2008, McCain got 59,934,814.
If only five percent of the votes are still left to be counted as reported by the Associated Press, this means there may be a little over six million ballots remaining.
Romney would have to get 48.3 percent of those just to match McCain's total.
Of course, even if that were to happen, this would have to be viewed as a terrible showing for Romney.
All we've been hearing for months was that there was far more enthusiasm this election for Republicans.
The poor turnout this year compared to 2008 is the most significant stat of the election IHMO. People are utterly fed up with both parties and don’t see the point.
We need to adjust our messaging to appeal to an electorate that sees politicians as only a hair better than child molesters. 2010 was a big win for the Tea Party in part because they were emitting an anti-establishment vibe.
We are the minority party, the opposition party, and we need to start exploiting the opportunities that provides. Stick it to the man.
And McCain and Palin did worse than Romney and Ryan. They lost more states ie Electoral votes, and lost the crucial battleground states like FL, VA, and OH by a larger margin, and lost the popular vote by a larger margin than Romney and Ryan did with Obama. The reason McCain and Palin got more votes is because the turn out was higher in 2008 for both sides. However they were creamed in the pop vote and in the EC.
The myth of Palin needs to die, frankly.
We need a sort of finishing school where the inexperienced potential candidates can get training and endure a baptism of fire out of the media glare. We've had way too many campaign implosions. Better to isolate any weakling from the herd.
Compared several states. The 2012 returns on the Fox site are still inocomplete. Many states still below 90% counted and many others a few percent not yet counted. Comparing McCain and Romney state-by-state with Fox 2012 numbers wouldn’t tell us much yet.
And he really didn’t beat Romney in those three states either. Put it this way; who came closer to Obama in PA and OH? Was it McCain or Romney?
OHIO:
Obama vs McCain
51.4% 46.8%
Obama vs Romney
50% 48&
PA:
Obama vs McCain
54.4% 44.2%
Obama vs Romney
52.0% 46.8%
Thank you for that. I was going to do that next, as I wondered. However, on my first pass at data collection, I did not record Obama votes.
This probably contributed to why the final numbers don’t make sense at all...there were reports of huge turnouts in republican districts.
Here’s a video of a voting machine expert’s court testimony where he explains in detail how votes can be manipulated on the voting machines. “The central tabulator’s data is extremely easy to manipulate”...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=IFY1iwE2qzI&feature=youtu.be&nomobile=1
For example, a WiFi or Bluetooth card can be hidden within the computer underneath the motherboard to remotely manipulate large numbers of votes.
Or someone can also manually upload huge amounts of duplicate votes in Democrat districts multiple times (reloading memory cards multiple times in a precinct / while destroying the paper trail at precincts).
If democrats heard all the news stories of Republicans “stealing the election” over the last several weeks, they would have no issues tampering with votes on their side.
The lack of turnout really is a puzzle. Perhaps the energy and excitement was too localized. Perhaps the fair-weather conservatives did not feel the energy that we felt, and thus they didn’t think it was worth their time to vote. Perhaps if the Tea Party rallies had been going on throughout the summer and fall, more people would have been energized enough to turn out.
I don’t think there was much energy on the Rat side either. How did they manage to turn out +6 more than us? They must have a very workman-like attitude, where they show up to vote even if they don’t care enough to go to rallies or put up yard signs.
Steele happened to be in there, but had absolutely nothing to do with 10.
Yep -- you got it, Brother FReeper. And what is our Fearless Leader Rush Limbaugh doing today? Whining and accusing most of his fellow Americans of being "children" who wanted to vote for "Santa Claus." When logic dictates that it's the opposite, that most of his fellow Americans rejected "Santa" but were cheated -- we outnumber liberals in votes. It's why Democrats and liberals have to cheat.
But bamboozled Rush is intent on self-pity, condescension, and insults, and Republicans are nodding in agreement with him.
No wonder they call it the "stupid party."
Keep thinking mccain and romney were the best options of the now ‘little less liberal’ political party called the republicans kind of like farting in the wind.. mccain wouldn’t have done as well without palin and given the mess Obama has been romney running against that record...
Sad party you support....
However you have to argue down the whole argument which is, to wit: The Republicans won an historic election. Steele was RNC Chairman at the time. Whatever it was he did contributed to that election, which was no ordinary election ~ and even if all he did was stand there on his thumbs, that was the right thing at that time, and it worked great.
Now, that's just the lead in to the feckless Preibus. Here we had the Republicans losing an historic election ~ the Democrats down 9 million votes, their lead candidate spinning off career ending scandals 24/7. No one in the Republican party standing in his way. Reince was the RNC Chairman at the time. Among other things he did were to cut off campaign funds to candidates who drew attention ~ guaranteeing a loss!
Well, there you have it ~ see, Mike looks like a genius compared to the doufous Preibus, and that's even if you hate mike and love Preibus
Time for Preibus to go back to Wisconsin.
Im right wing not a moderate but the reality is Romney did better than McCain against Obama. Were talking EC and in percentage of margin of loss in battleground states.
Bush has been Hooverized, and he deserves it. But we don’t. Hoover had as little resemblance to the policies and style of Coolidge and Harding as Bush does to the conservative movement, except insofar as it has been corrupted by militarists (neocons) and compassinists (evangelicals).
Voters are shortsighted, in that they can’t seperate the party that happens to be in power and the had stuff that happens. It is just that conservatism be mistaken for Bushism. We brought that on ourselves. But not that conservatism be blamed for the meltdown, especially as Republicans didn’t own Congress for long stretches of the Bush years. Trend again, voters never take account of splits between the branches. The 94 minirevolt will never be credited with Clintonian prosperity.
Voters are stupid as well as shortsighted. Nevermind everything I said up to now. This is the main point: meltdowns matter less than how you respond to them. Every time we’ve responded with Big Government, from Hoover as the first president to treat an economic downturn as equivalent to war to TARP, the auto bailouts, QEinfinity, and the many stimuli, we’ve been stuck in the muck. When we responded the obvious way, by not prolonging the hurt, as in 21, after WWII, and 81, among others, we get out.
Just like how with Nixon the coverup is worse than the crime, covering up recession is worse than letting it happen. One exception is the 1890s, during which Clevelandian laissez faire couldn’t stanch the bleeding and which lent dangerous credibility to the Populism and Progressivism which finally overtook the Republic in 33, if not in the person of Hoover. I can’t explain it, and frankly it scares me. But otherwise all indications are that hands off is the correct countercyclical action.
We need to pound it into people’s heads that downyurns are not the problem. They are persistent, universal, and seemingly unstoppable. Something endemic to the monetary systems of modern economies, even ones on the gold standard, causes the business cycle. We’ll get less downturns under gold, and less severe, button not none. Whatever, let us cycle. Let us meltdown. The bad thing is throwing the baby out with the bathwater by reacting with the moral equivalence of war.
Somebody said it because it was true. Do you think Steele created the Tea Party, or did anything to direct or foster it? He didn’t oppose it at least, which I guess was something.
The Tea Party was inspired by the bailouts, stimuli, and especially Obamacare. That and the fact that the opposition is always more energized, or almost always, is why we won 10. Steele merely didn’t screw it up.
By the way, none of this is to say the other guy isn’t worse. Maybe he wouldn’t have done as well with the Tea Party. But nothing can make me think Steele had anything positive to do with 10.
Preibus actually did things harmful to our candidates.
So far I have heard a proposal we simply set fire to the losing presiding officer. I'd like to entertain something else ~ not quite so dramatic but certainly as effective.
I hope you didn't think this was a mere administrative position of no consequence. When you are RNC chairman you are big time!
Didn’t Romney win the popular vote? If so, then if Romney got less than McCain in 2008, that would mean that 0 got even less that McCain. Am I wrong?
Can you handle the truth about the low voter turnout for Romney? McCain got more votes because of the true conservative, Sarah Palin! McCain was running off the road into the ditch until Sarah came on board to ignite the “conservative base”! The GOP still does not get it!
You’re saying conservatives wanted obama to win because Romney wasn’t “pure” enough for them. Enjoy the next 4 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.