GOP Turns Sure Victory into Defeat

Townhall.com ^ | November 8, 2011 | Michael Reagan

[Kaslin]

Wait until next year -- 2016, that is.

That’s what disappointed Republican spinners kept saying Tuesday night as they watched Mitt Romney’s hopes crash and burn in swing state after swing state.

How many times did I hear a Republican talk about how their party’s deep bench of future all-stars will return it to power in Washington in four years?

But all the Ryans, Rubios, Bushes, Haleys and Christies in America can’t put the GOP -- or the country -- back together again.

The GOP is a wreck -- and not just in California, where the party’s registration is now below 30 percent.

Look how easily the Republican Party managed to turn what should have been a sure victory over an incompetent and dangerous incumbent into an embarrassing defeat.

First they tore each other to shreds in a bitter primary, smearing their eventual nominee in debates as a rich, uncaring profiteer who put working people out on the street and shipped their jobs overseas.

Then, while Obama’s ads in the battleground states reinforced the Republican-made caricature of Mitt, the Romney campaign did just about everything wrong.

It squandered the GOP convention and tried to make their candidate into “Mitt the Moderate.” Team Romney also shunned their natural allies in talk radio and didn’t reach out for help from conservatives like me.

I would have been glad to help the Romney campaign in Ohio or Pennsylvania, where I worked for my father in 1980. I offered, but the phone never rang. It didn’t ring for Bill O’Reilly or for the other major radio and TV talk shows, either.

But Team Romney’s biggest mistake was playing prevent defense after his big victory in the first debate. It was a terrible, fatal blunder.

Instead of hammering away at the horror of Obamacare, the cover-up in Benghazi and President Eye-Candy’s four years of failure, Romney ran the last five weeks hoping the clock would run out before Obama could recover.

But you don’t play prevent defense when you are running in second place in Ohio, Virginia, Florida -- and Tuesday’s results proved it.

Hurricane Sandy struck Mitt a final blow, giving Obama the chance to look presidential and making Mitt disappear from the media for four days.

But give credit to Obama’s Chicago Gang. They ran a much better campaign -- on the ground and in the air. They got out the vote and Obama got out his message of class envy and federal entitlements for all, without any trouble from his toadies in the media.

Now bigger deficits, higher taxes and a stagnant economy lie ahead for as far as the eye can see. And socialized medicine -- which my father warned was coming to America 50 years ago -- is going to soon become a reality via Obamacare.

Team Romney blew an easy win because it had a poor game plan. But it also lost because the Republican Party is all talk and no guts when it comes to fighting for real conservatism -- Ronald Reagan conservatism.

GOP bigwigs constantly praise my father. For years they’ve used him to suck true conservatives into the party, but they’ve never really embraced Reaganism or its ideals.

They didn’t in the 1980s and they still don’t today. They only talk about him. The party bosses don’t really think like him.

Most of those Republican candidates who lost Tuesday played the same game of pretend. “I’m like Ronald Reagan!” “No, I’m like Ronald Reagan!”

But most of them aren’t like my father. They weren’t waving the “bold colors” of real conservatism he talked about in 1975. The banners of the losers -- like Mitt’s -- were colored in “pale pastels.”

The GOP needs a new playbook. Unless it starts embracing my father’s conservative ideals instead of just paying lip service to them, the so-called “Party of Ronald Reagan” may never win another national election.

[JimRed]

By 2016 there may not be anything left to save!

[zt1053]

Obama did not win by a 49 state Reagan landslide. It was 51-49. That is hardly a supper majority. I think everyone here needs to check this article out.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/what_major_demographic_shift_comments.html#disqus_thread

[babble-on]

So an article purportedly about Demographics does not once mention Demographics. Thanks for sharing.

[Best and Brightest]

The Republican Party and Republican contenders agreeing to that CNN Republican Presidential debate series was utter stupidity. The Republican candidates tore each other apart like gladiators; the job of finding the potential week spots in all the Republican candidates was done as a freebee for the Democratic Party by the Republican Party and its candidates even before the Republican candidate was selected.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Remember too, that Obama didn’t face major scrutiny from the MSM.

It’s a truism, but worth repeating. The Democrat runs against the Republican. The Republican has to run against both the Democrat and the media.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

The Republican party is finished! The Tea Party Conservatives must raise up and seize control—OR leave the party to for a new Nationalist Party—NOW. Sarah Palin lead us! Trump, put your money where your mouth is! Newt step forward to strike the blow for freedom. We need a party not filled with Cravens! We bit our tongues and supported Mitt, the Mormon, Flip Flopper and see where it took us? NO MORE RINOS! No truck with traitors (Like Gov. Christe — let him hug his way into the Democrat Party).

[fwdude]

...we ended up with the Massachusetts moderate.

Moderate from Massachusetts = raving liberal in most other states.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I would take issue with your implying that the GOP is “anti-immigrant”. The GOP is against illegal immigration. We have a system of laws and policies dealing with those who come here legally.

Unfortunately the media and liberals take the stand against ILLEGAL immigration and say that the GOP is against all immigrants.

But you have a good point, that if the liberals and the media are able to push the narrative that the GOP is racist, xenophobic, bigoted, etc. then we will lose elections.

[KansasGirl]

Akin WAS NOT a Tea Party candidate. In fact, His opponents Brunner and Steelman both had Tea Party support during the primary while Akin DID NOT!

[napscoordinator]

Not so President Reagan made a deal to agree to amnesty in exchange for closing the border Democrats reneged on their part of the agreement!!!

Well then at the very least he was naive.

[CedarDave]

In New Mexico Congressional district 2 is the southern half of the state. The boundary is a slightly WNW-ESE line south of the I-40 corridor (south of Gallup, ABQ, Santa Rosa, Clovis). Republican registration is 34%. The area includes lots of Latino voters, the oil and gas fields, Mexican border counties and rural ranchers.

Tea-party conservative Steve Pearce won re-election with 59.2% of the vote not only in the oil patch but in most counties too (The Democratic candidate was Evelyn Madrid Erhard). I'm not sure of his secret (besides hard work) but the GOPe needs to emulate this for future victories.

Democratic counties and percentages:

• Bernalillo 45-54
• Cibola 49-50
• Dona Ana 47-52
• Grant 48-51
• Guadalupe 44-55
• Luna 49-50
• McKinley 49-50

Republican counties and percentages:

• Catron 74-25
• Chaves 68-31
• DeBaca 72-27
• Eddy 67-32
• Hidalgo 60-39
• Lea 79-20
• Lincoln 71-27
• Otero 65-33
• Roosevelt 79-19
• Sierra 64-35
• Socorro 56-42
• Valencia 56-42

One more thing -- Lea, Eddy and Chaves counties make up SE NM Oil Patch - jobs are plentiful, "help wanted" signs everywhere, and skills bring a premium salary and benefits. These folks vote to protect their jobs and are rightfully wary of what Obama will do shut down their livelihood.

[napscoordinator]

Michael Reagan blames the victim for the crime.

Michael Reagan is correct...100 percent. The so called Victim is not a victim. He is 100 percent the reason he lost. Romney sucked!!!! Can’t take that truth away.

[napscoordinator]

Just two years ago, FISCAL SANITY and FISCAL SANITY ONLY saved the day. A TEA Party sweep!

Complete crap. The reason we did so well in 2010 is because the Democrats did NOT show up. That is why I am looking forward to 2014 when we will do much better in the elections. Democrats mostly show up for Presidential elections only. 2006 was unusual because Democrats were tired of Bush.

[CedarDave]

Ping to this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2956997/posts?page=51#51

Look at other NM county results here:
http://sos.state.nm.us/2012GenResults/CountyResults.htm

NM list PING!

I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics

To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keywords

To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

[babble-on]

We basically support a set of laws designed by Big Labor to prevent foreigners from coming here and competing with the unionized workers.

If we’re not anti-Immigrant we sure aren’t pro-Immigrant.

I think the “legal immigration” dodge is a cop-out. We are talking about a misdemeanor crime, committed by people who for the most part come here to work in our economy. If we object to their going on welfare rolls, then let’s reform the welfare system. But beyond wanting to know who is here, having their fingerprints on file, and making sure they pay taxes and don’t freeload on the government, I would be in favor of dramatically raising immigration, and offering amnesty to those who are willing to sign up with the legal system.

[matginzac]

Good list...
At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, if you buy into the voter fraud memo, this proves to me that vote manipulation is only important to the powers that be nationally because of worldwide efforts...
They don’t bother with local elections except, maybe, the senate...
Through this election’s senate wins, the grid lock, do nothing, blame it on the Repubs scenario will prevail...
And Obozo will end run around Congress with no protest from anyone...
Tyranny rules....

[chimera]

I saw a post where it said that the ‘Pubs lost so much in CA that the ‘Rats have a supermajority in the state legislature. Basically ‘Pubs are irrelevant in CA. The ‘Rats run everything and no one can stop them. Interesting correlation that the first thing to happen is a tax increase. Who would have seen that coming?

[VAFreedom]

“Republicans are eons behind Democrats in getting the vote out via social media, etc. Republicans worry more about upsetting Democrats and ...”

Agree, last week, 3 different liberals rang the door bell on 3 seperate occasion to “make sure they can count on my vote for the ‘president’”, one on the election day. I guess they didn’t see my Gadsden flag bumper sticker. Yet, no one from the Romney campaign showed up. I’m in Virginia, supposely, a battleground state.

and yes, I told those 3 girls (probably) to leave my property and I don’t ever want to see them again.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Yup, and jobs? Who wants job? We don’t want no stinkin jobs.

[kabumpo]

Newsflash: there is no such thing as a Latino, or a Latino vote. There are a lot of Mexicans, who won’t vote for Rubio because he is an anti-Castro Cuban. Ted Cruz is also Cuban - and White, very, very White, and the Indian Mexicans won’t support him - they were not who voted for him in Texas.”Latinos” are not an indifferentiated mass like the blacks. There are white, black, Indian and mixed blood Latinos. They.are from different countries. They eat different food. They listen to different music. They follow different sports teams. They don’t live in the same neighborhoods. Please understand, everyone, that it is counterproductive imbecilic reductionistic racism to talk about a Latino vote, especially when citing two politicians who are not Dems because they are the children of refugees from communism, they are not the children of immigrants. The children of immigrants are not going to vote for them.