A possible counterpoint to the demographics hypothesis… Romney netted less of the raw popular vote than McCain in ‘08, and Obama got less than Bush in ‘04.
https://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results
Unless there’s a few more million votes out there waiting to be tabulated.
“Romney netted less of the raw popular vote than McCain in ‘08”
So did Obama. He got less votes than McCain did. Romney got about 3.7 million fewer than McCain. The women and minorities of America screwed us good. But ultimately, the “stay at home” repubs who didn’t vote gave us ObamaII.
“Romney netted less of the raw popular vote than McCain”
Not in the swing states.
But in the states where Obama won by double digits in 2008 many people didn’t bother to vote.
They stole it in the cities and through early voting. Just look at the county map. Solid red except for city pockets of blue.