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Mark Steyn: Romney ran a 'small, shriveled campaign' (Audio)
Daily Caller ^ | November 26, 2012 | Jeff Poor

Posted on 11/26/2012 4:18:45 PM PST by Rufus2007

Filling in on Rush Limbaugh’s Monday radio show, National Review columnist Mark Steyn said that Republicans lost big on Election Day because less engaged and more uniformed voters turned out in force.

“We do very well in off years, in the midterms — 1994, 2002,” Steyn said. “Republicans can have good years then because essentially they’re low-turnout elections — people who are engaged in politics vote. In the presidential years, people voted — a broader pool of voters comes in, and they’re basically people who swim in the broader culture. They’re not people who know the name of their congressmen or governor, and [they] aren’t terribly interested.”

Steyn, author “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,” added that the GOP has had persistent problems getting motivated voters to the polls.

...more (w/audio)...

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: 2012issues; blame; culturewar; marksteyn; mittromney; romney2012; talkradio
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To: Yardstick

Great post.
America is all about media 24/7/365 and that media is overwhelmingly liberal.


21 posted on 11/26/2012 4:56:26 PM PST by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: Catsrus

You are largely correct, although I think Steyn’s argument was a lack of big ideas...not specifics. He is saying he ran on a narrow idea that he could better steer the economy. He made no larger argument about the size of government, the massive growth of DC vs the rest of the country or liberty vs. government dictate.

At the same time, you have a solid point. Romney was hammered for not having specifics, but the guy in office never made any presentation of a plan for what four more years brings. We know he’d pay for 5 extra days of government a year with tax increases, but never mentioned how he was going to pay for the other 360.25 days of the year for his big government controls. A vague ‘Forward’ was all the voters needed to hear, apparently. It is frustrating to no end...we have to learn how to manipulate the media bias and every time a person goes on these shows use the time to hit on our points. We play defensive and explain our side. The other side just hammers us. With the press bias, they win because they never get any scrutiny that is seen by the average voter.


22 posted on 11/26/2012 5:04:46 PM PST by ilgipper (Obama supporters are comprised of the uninformed & the ill-informed)
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To: nascarnation
Absolutely. The liberals are eating our lunch in terms of media influence. I don't know why we're ceding that ground to them. Back in the day -- and I mean way back in the day...like back in the days of the Catholic church and Michelangelo and Leonardo, conservatives owned the media lock stock and barrel. Even into the fifties and sixties of the last century we held our ground. But now we're just totally getting trounced. It really is an embarrassment.
23 posted on 11/26/2012 5:09:20 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Real intelligent response there, C. Edmund.

The bottom line is that the GOP can’t get it done even when the opposition essentially hands them the election.

As I stated, I don’t know if a third party will end up becoming a force to be rekoned with (although I think this time it will happen), but we know the future is not in the Republican Party.

Not the way I would have wanted it, but that’s the way it is.


24 posted on 11/26/2012 5:17:39 PM PST by MichaelCorleone ('We the People' can and will take this country back...starting today.)
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To: MichaelCorleone

Go ahead, pick one of the 70 some off parties now.....

The problem is, you don’t get it. The problem is not any party, the problem is human nature. And which ever of your brilliant third parties emerges, they will have that same problem. You know why? Because they’ll be run by humans, and those humans will be subject to human nature. Duh.


25 posted on 11/26/2012 5:26:43 PM PST by C. Edmund Wright ("WTF?: How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost....Again")
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To: loveliberty2

Very, very, very well-said. I wish you would run for....something.


26 posted on 11/26/2012 5:46:49 PM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Rufus2007

we been rolled.....

Does anybody here doubt for a New York minute...that had Mitt Romney won the election with hundreds of precincts 100+ voting for him it would NOT be in the MSM 24/7 and in front of a judge somewhere from now until 2016?

the Pubbies are no where to be found...just crickets...

IMHO...they took the campaign donations and ran....to sit down with the rest of DC and raise our taxes...and continue to authorize stupid, corrupt spending....and continue to prosecute the war on Flyover Country by DC.


27 posted on 11/26/2012 6:06:48 PM PST by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: Rufus2007

It’s only because he was a small shriveled candidate.


28 posted on 11/26/2012 6:09:13 PM PST by RIghtwardHo
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To: RIghtwardHo
It’s only because he was a small shriveled candidate.

I'm afraid so. If he had tried to argue a strong conservative case, he would have been seen as a liar, since his record as governor was in no way conservative.

Pro life? How could he argue that when he pushed through taxpayer funded abortion as "healthcare" in Massachusetts?

Pro family? How could he argue that, when he was a pioneer of gay marriage?

Anti-government healthcare? How could he argue that, when Romneycare gave Obama his chief model to work from?

How can a man with no apparent principles argue from principle? It just won't work.

He came across as a small, shriveled candidate because, regretably, that's what he was. Not his looks, which are fine. But the complete absence of any basic principles. He was not in a position to say very much, or to attack Obama on stuff like his votes to throw born-alive babies out on the roof to die, because it would have rebounded back on him if he tried.

29 posted on 11/26/2012 6:37:42 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Yardstick

Well, one of the reasons that we have no answer to it is because in general the anti-Left is either oblivious to, ignorant of, or hostile and dismissive of culture. Kind of like my attitude toward, say, ice hockey - except that if knowing about and promulgating ice hockey was the way to win the war, I would get a pair of skates, get season tickets and get with the program. How many members of FR read the only non-Leftist cultural publication, The New Criterion? Anybody? How many stay informed by reading TLS - does anyone know what it is? How many are members of a museum? How many go to the ballet or opera even once a year? How many ever go to a jazz concert? How many go to thr theater? These are all components in the cultural landscape, and are something that can’t be bought with money. Any more than a winning sports team van be created with money and nothing else.
One has to participate, one has to be engaged. The anti-Left has been largely absent from the cultural discourse in America for almost a hundred years. So of course we have no answer to Spielberg et al. You can’t fight on the epic level of War and Peace if you’re armed with the Reader’s Digest.


30 posted on 11/26/2012 7:04:06 PM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: Yardstick

Well, one of the reasons that we have no answer to it is because in general the anti-Left is either oblivious to, ignorant of, or hostile and dismissive of culture. Kind of like my attitude toward, say, ice hockey - except that if knowing about and promulgating ice hockey was the way to win the war, I would get a pair of skates, get season tickets and get with the program. How many members of FR read the only non-Leftist cultural publication, The New Criterion? Anybody? How many stay informed by reading TLS - does anyone know what it is? How many are members of a museum? How many go to the ballet or opera even once a year? How many ever go to a jazz concert? How many go to thr theater? These are all components in the cultural landscape, and are something that can’t be bought with money. Any more than a winning sports team van be created with money and nothing else.
One has to participate, one has to be engaged. The anti-Left has been largely absent from the cultural discourse in America for almost a hundred years. So of course we have no answer to Spielberg et al. You can’t fight on the epic level of War and Peace if you’re armed with the Reader’s Digest.


31 posted on 11/26/2012 7:04:22 PM PST by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: loveliberty2

No it’s much more than just Romney.

The GOP has taken the side of China.

Against American workers.

This is a terrible mistake. Buy American.

Just saying.


32 posted on 11/26/2012 7:07:17 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: C. Edmund Wright
I'm not here trying to sell a third party. No need to.

The Republicans have shown themselves to be worthless all on their own. They cannot win the equivalent of a 3-inch put against a guy who clearly hates America, her Consitution, the Bill of Rights, private property, and the free enterprise system.

We needed another Reagan, and Rove gives us George H. ‘kinder, gentler’ Bush; we need an answer to Clinton, and we get George ‘slam is a religion of peace’ Bush; nobody knows jack about this community organizer obama, and we get John ‘keating five’ McCain who still loses; obama drives us right into the abyss, and the party bosses ram Romney down our throat as ‘the only one who can win’. You know the end of that story.

Sorry, but we've given the GOP more than enough time to do the right thing. The Republicans are not equipped to do the heavy lifting necessary to lead us to true recovery (culturally and economically). Even now, after all this, their answer is to become more like the Democrats.

33 posted on 11/26/2012 7:29:56 PM PST by MichaelCorleone ('We the People' can and will take this country back...starting today.)
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To: Rufus2007
I like Mark but disagree. Romeny failed to provide details at a level the people could relate to. On jobs, for example, he promised "a plan to create twelve million jobs!" To paraphrase Stalin, "One job is an accomplishment, twelve million is a statistic." Why did he never say, "I'll approve the Keystone Pipeline on Inauguration day, instantly creating 20,000 highpaying jobs for oilworkers, pipefitters and steelworkers, jobs held hostage by the corrupt Obama regime?"

Guarantee that would have made more impact than "I've got twelve million jobs up my sleeve."

34 posted on 11/26/2012 7:43:38 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Catsrus

Michael Moore was right. If all the people who text in votes to American Idol show up to vote, the Libs can never lose.


35 posted on 11/26/2012 8:00:08 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: hinckley buzzard

“On jobs...”

The real problem at hand is that office of the president has anything at all to do with employment in yours and my town. Not which fool would like to occupy the office.


36 posted on 11/26/2012 8:14:13 PM PST by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

I actually did hear him say that he would approve the Keystone pipeline the day he was inaugurated. He also mentioned the jobs it would bring. Its just that his message was snuffed out by the negatives.


37 posted on 11/26/2012 8:16:30 PM PST by Catsrus
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To: MichaelCorleone

you don’t get it. You don’t get it at all. I’m not defending the GOP at all. I have no argument with the problems you state within the GOP. That’s all true.

Those problems do exist. But those are human mistakes. And you won’t find a third party full of robots. You just don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about. It’s a people problem, not a party problem.

You just don’t understand.


38 posted on 11/26/2012 8:38:15 PM PST by C. Edmund Wright ("WTF?: How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost....Again")
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To: MichaelCorleone

Don’t forget: we need someone who wants Americans to work.

THIS is the critical point which the GOP has lost sight of, and too many others on our side.

Americans want to work. Give them jobs, not welfare.


39 posted on 11/26/2012 8:44:11 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: Rufus2007

I told everybody that would listen that Romney would lose because he allowed Dinglebarry to school yard bully him and he would not fight back. Mitt was the best man for the job but folks want a fighter and the Muslim Prez is a dirty lying Chicago machine politican that shucks and jives his way through life with affirmative action and set asides.


40 posted on 11/27/2012 3:48:23 AM PST by BTCM (Death and destruction is the only treaty Muslims comprehend.)
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