Free Republic

Barack Obama did not win the election. Mitt Romney and the Republicans lost it. Obama has no mandate. None whatsoever. Here's why: Obama received roughly 7 million fewer votes in 2012 than in 2008. He was perceived to be something much less than he had portrayed himself. No matter what the Democrats did, they could not turn out anything like the 69.5 million votes they got in 2008. The election was handed to Romney on a silver platter, but his campaign advisers — and a couple of Republican Senate candidates — wrecked his chances. Let's give the Republicans some credit....

Stuart Stevens was the chief strategist for the Romney presidential campaign. Over the years, one of the more troubling characteristics of the Democratic Party and the left in general has been a shortage of loyalty and an abundance of self-loathing. It would be a shame if we Republicans took a narrow presidential loss as a signal that those are traits we should emulate. I appreciate that Mitt Romney was never a favorite of D.C.’s green-room crowd or, frankly, of many politicians. That’s why, a year ago, so few of those people thought that he would win the Republican nomination. But...

In many aspects of the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney and the establishment Republicans who were running his campaign just plain got outgunned and outsmarted. Yet, in the aftermath of Romney’s defeat, he said he lost because he couldn’t overcome the effect of Obama’s “gifts” to key demographics: student loan modifications for young voters and amnesty for young and predominantly Hispanic illegal aliens. We think Romney missed the mark with that analysis because conservative ideas have successfully countered the Democrats’ attempts to bribe voters in the past. To avoid the kind of defeat Republicans suffered in 2012, conservatives must learn...

Barack Obama has edged ahead of Mitt Romney in the final days of the presidential campaign. In the Pew Research Center’s election weekend survey, Obama holds a 48% to 45% lead over Romney among likely voters. The survey finds that Obama maintains his modest lead when the probable decisions of undecided voters are taken into account. Our final estimate of the national popular vote is Obama 50% and Romney 47%, when the undecided vote is allocated between the two candidates based on several indicators and opinion

A funny thing happened as I was looking at the political map of this year's presidential election: It began to look like the map of the presidential election of 2004. I'm not talking about the superficial similarity, the fact that in both elections an incumbent president beat a challenger from Massachusetts by a 51 to 48 percent popular vote margin.I'm talking about the fact that the large majority of states voted just a little bit more Democratic in 2012 than they did in 2004.Enough to give 2012 nominee Barack Obama 332 electoral votes, far more than 2004 nominee John Kerry's...

In the aftermath of establishment Republican Mitt Romney’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election, Governor Romney said he lost because he couldn’t overcome the effect of Obama’s “gifts” to key demographics; student loan modifications for young voters and amnesty for young and predominantly Hispanic illegal aliens. We think Romney missed the mark with that analysis because conservative ideas have successfully countered the Democrats’ attempts to bribe voters in the past. However, the comment is a good place for conservatives to start analyzing the failures of the Romney campaign – and learning from the successes of the Obama campaign. Here are...

I keep thinking, “Christie can’t possibly come back from this.” And then I think, “Wait, did we actually just nominate John McCain and the guy responsible for RomneyCare?” Never underestimate the Republican capacity to forgive, my friends: But behind the scenes, the intensity of the reaction from those in Mr. Christie’s party caught him by surprise, interviews show, requiring a rising Republican star to try to contain a tempest that left him feeling deeply misunderstood and wounded...The tensions followed Mr. Christie to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Las Vegas last week. At a gathering where he...

When last we left Dean Chambers, the Duffield, Va., resident was licking his wounds in Virginia’s coal fields, trying to figure out how he’d fooled himself and much of a nation into believing the Mitt Romney would win the election. Chambers, 45, the founder of UnskewedPolls.com, ultimately decided he had incorrectly forecast that too few Democrats would vote. He admitted this mistake. Now, it appears he’s reconsidering. Recently he launched a new website, BarackOFraudo.com. It seeks to understand how four states that he had incorrectly predicted would go to Romney — Virginia, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania — actually went to...

Every person who talks and writes about politics gets stuff wrong. I’ve gotten my fair share wrong. But what I think I got most wrong in Campaign 2012 was the damage Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark would do to him. It may seem obvious, but bear with me. Mitt Romney was talking off the cuff to a supposedly off the record group of donors and muddled several data points together, ultimately telling the tale of the 47% who won’t vote for him for any reason. He was referencing the 47% who don’t pay taxes and interwove it with a 47% of...

From California to Maine, unions used their political muscle in the recent elections to help install Democratic governors, build labor-friendly majorities in state legislatures and defeat ballot initiatives against them. The combination of union money and member mobilization helped Democrats take control of state legislatures in Maine and Minnesota. In Michigan, voters repealed a law that allowed cities in financial distress to suspend collective bargaining contracts. But unions lost there on an effort to make collective bargaining rights a part of the state constitution. In New Hampshire, unions helped Maggie Hassan win the governor's race. Unions spent millions backing Hassan...

Just watched FOX & Friends and Col Allen West was on live and stated that he will no longer fight for the FL D18 seat. (paraphrasing) He stated that even though they found problems with the way the vote count was handled he said it is not about him but is about what is best for the people of FL D18 so he conceds the seat to Pat Murphy. I have a feeling we have not seen the last of Col West. Thanks for your service to our country Col West.

Brothel owner who employs 80 prostitutes wins election as county commissioner in Nevada... and he's a Republican Lance Gilman is a thriving businessman with dozens of employees. That those workers include a good many prostitutes didn't faze the people of a rural Nevada county who recently elected him as a Storey County commissioner by a wide margin. The Mustang Ranch brothel owner is the first such owner to win election to public office in Nevada since prostitution was legalized here in 1971, Nevada historian Guy Rocha said. And he's believed to be the first to do so in the state's...

Mitt Romney's Republican Get Out the Vote system (ORCA) had a meltdown on Election Day leaving some campaign workers wandering around with nothing to do. Now Anonymous has released a video claiming responsibility for jamming ORCA...

Wearing the garments of their respective faiths, a rabbi, two Protestant ministers and a Franciscan friar set aside theological differences on a December afternoon to lead a march – sponsored by a broad coalition of community and labor groups – down Market Street in San Francisco to the Occupy San Francisco encampment at Justin Herman Plaza. They were united in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s main rallying cry against inequality, recession, high unemployment and unaffordable health care. These conditions and the economic system behind them, they say, are in opposition to the Gospel and Catholic social teaching. “If...

County board grants Rep. Allen West’s recount request The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board has ordered a recount of all early votes in that county, beginning Saturday morning. The ruling is a victory for West, but overcoming his current 1,900-vote deficit will still be difficult. A Florida judge on Friday denied Rep. Allen West’s (R-Fla.) request to recount early votes in St. Lucie County, dealing another setback to the congressman’s effort to overcome an apparent defeat in last Tuesday’s election. West had requested the recounting of 37,000 ballots from early voting, suggesting that they may have been miscounted. The judge...

...Congressional officials familiar with the briefings told the Associated Press that Gen Petraeus testified that security at the consulate was so lax that the attackers walked in and set fire to the facility. Security at the CIA annex was much better, the AP reported, but the attackers had arms and broke in. Republicans were also critical of the Obama administration's handling of security situation. Florida Senator Marco Rubio said Gen Petraeus testimony showed that "clearly the security measures were inadequate despite an overwhelming and growing amount of information that showed the area in Benghazi was dangerous, particularly on the night...

...Democratic senators who emerged from the hearing said Petraeus' testimony supported U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Rice was speaking from talking points prepared by the CIA and approved by the intelligence committee. "The key is that they were unclassified talking points at a very early stage. And I don't think she should be pilloried for this. She did what I would have done or anyone else would have done that was going on a weekend show," Feinstein said. "To say that she is unqualified to be Secretary of State I think is a...

Top Florida Democrats sounded the alarm Friday over what they see as improper interference by Gov. Rick Scott in U.S. Rep. Allen West’s attempt to hold onto his congressional seat. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, flatly asserted in a statement that the Republican governor is attempting to interfere in the contest between Republican West and Democrat Patrick Murphy. A spokesman for Scott's secretary of state denied the Democrats' assertions. Unofficial results show Murphy as the winner, but the West campaign has asserted that counting irregularities in St. Lucie County – part of...

Crowds began to emerge around 11 a.m. in front of the St. Lucie County courthouse to express support for Congressman Allen West’s call for a complete recount in the Congressional District 18 race. The West team has been putting together a legal argument to persuade St. Lucie County Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn to order county Elections Supervisor Gertrude Walker to recount all early voting ballots. Walker has admitted to problems with the ballots,...

Allen West hearing live video: Allen West, Patrick Murphy race results challenged at 1 p.m. hearing By: Jonathan Mattise, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers WPTV will be live streaming Friday's 1 p.m. hearing. CLICK HERE TO WATCH WHEN IT BEGINS ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A St. Lucie County Circuit Court judge has scheduled a hearing at 1 p.m. Friday for U.S. Rep. Allen West's latest St. Lucie challenge for an election recount. By noon, about 50 Allen West supporters have showed up outside the St. Lucie County Courthouse and were chanting scathing criticisms of county Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker. The...