Another point of view that maybe the answer. (Vanity)

[MeOnTheBeach]

Some time ago I heard a quote from an African-American, who's name I can't recall, but I remember them saying "My biggest fear of the first black man being elected President is that he might fail."

I believe this election was not a rejection of conservatism or the Republican message. It was an emotional investment in the first black man in the White House.

The minorities in the US projected a rejection of Barack Obama as a rejection of themselves and of their race. No matter how badly Barack Obama has failed they cannot emotionally let the first black president be seen as failing. So they voted for him, no matter what.

As an example I can point at many such cases. Marion Berry the African-American mayor of DC, who was arrested and spent 6 months in federal prison for being video taped smoking crack cocaine. He was then elected to the D.C. city council.

Mitt Romney ran a great campaign. He had great message. He looks great and he is the man for our time. But there was no way anyone could have over come the emotional trauma for many whites and minorities in the US of seeing the first black President denounced as a failure.

[mrs9x]

For a portion of the electorate, reelecting Obama is like the abused girlfriend who wants to give the boyfriend another shot. They just cannot face reality and cannot let go.

[Tired of Taxes]

Thanks for the info. Yes, that difference is significant.

[rwfromkansas]

This is a big part of it, as well as just “giving him more time.”

In addition, we faced real issues with people thinking Romney is only for the rich and anti-women and anti-minority, while Obama cared for the middle class.

These are things we have to adress to win again in the future. It’s more than simply saying we want equality and fair opportunity...we have to show it to convince people that conservatism is not the enemy.

[newzjunkey]

It was an emotional investment in the first black man in the White House.

This was the wild card that pushed Obama over the top.

For a John F Kerry or John McCaIn? No amount of begging for more time or blaming their predecessors would've kept them in the White House.

It's a double standard, and repulsively racist, but I think going forward no one else could get a Mulligan, not even the first woman.

[rwfromkansas]

If things get a lot better economically in the next four years, which certainly could happen as a natural consequence of how long things have not been so good, I fear Obama will get a great “legacy.”

That is my worry, is if things look better, we will have another Clinton on our hands and the meme that Dems are better for the economy will be virtually impossible to reverse in the minds of future voters.

[newzjunkey]

Pontius Pilate voters. People who washed their hands of the election whether because they voted Obama in 2008 and while disheartened and didn't trust Romney or was afraid of feeling racist, or were evangelicals who wouldn't vote for a Mormon or other factors... they sat at home, washed their hands of it because this was the hard choice.

They were cowards. That missing two million from McCain's run, I'd have preferred they voted Obama than not show up.

Of course I'm thinking of many freepers who refused to vote for Romney even against Obama's fundamental transformation, failed policies and radicalism.

[newzjunkey]

Also look at the vote totals more closely, many like me, just did not vote for the top of the ticket.

You are a coward and a traitor. There I said it.

[montanajoe]

Well there are lots of folks like me..at least 15000 in Montana alone who could have been in the GOP column had they ran a conservative. But assuming you speak for the GOP I guess they don’t want us...:)

[ifinnegan]

Yes, your comments are accurate I believe.

It is that simple, but that is only half of it.

As you point out, Obama kept his base.

Romney did not garner the conservative base.

From the get-go that is what conservatives said would happen.

Romney was in fact the worst choice and weakest of all possible candidates for the Republican party.

It’s not like the country clubbers weren’t warned ad nauseum during the primaries.

[MeOnTheBeach]

Just curious. Does anyone know how many nations have black leaders that have not become worse off either economically or escalated into wars and some type of genocide?

I can assure you that what ever the number is, it pales in comparison to the white and asian ones. Marx was white. Hitler was white. Stalin was white. Mao, Pol Pot, Tojo. The list goes on and on...

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Makes no difference, really. FDR presided over a freaking decade-long depression and he was reelected three times. Obama will make citizens out of all of the illegal aliens currently in the country, with or without Boehner’s aquiescence, and they and the rest of the rapidly-growing Hispanic population will vote straight ticket Democrat for generations to come, just like blacks, and that will be the end of the GOP, and of any hope of restoring limited constitutional government in the U.S.