[Nifster]

SOmething on the order of 3 million folks who in the past have voted republican did not vote this go around. Now one could say they all died over the last 4 years. Or one might suggest that the candidate did not inspire them....and one heard that a lot here at FR. Even in the face of the return of a dictator they stayed home. I do not have a clue as to how to fix that but I do know that going more left is NOT the answer

[RC one]

Look at Maine, Indiana and Missouri. We lost Olympia Snowe's senate seat in Maine because the Tea party ran her out of office and the electorate replaced her with a democrat. In Indiana a decent republican, Richard Lugar, was run out of office by the tea party. The tea party candidate, Richard Mourdock, was then soundly defeated even though Hoosiers voted for Mitt Romney. Keep in mind, that seat was held by a republican for decades. Does that tell you anything? Finally, Missouri. We are up 11 points over McCaskill until the Missouri electorate realizes how extreme this Akin guy is. He then loses by over 11 points and the state goes ahead and votes for Mitt Romney anyways, just like Indiana.

We should have won Montana too but we sure didn't. Should have won Virginia but we didn't. Should have won Florida but we didn't. Should have won Ohio but we didn't. We were doing great in these states until a couple of tea party backed candidates starting running their mouths about abortion and God's will and the very next thing you know, the key demographic group that we were working with, women, ran back home to the democratic party and the trends changed against us. The electorate's response was anything but surprising.

so, was this a rejection of conservatism? Not necessarily. Was it a rejection of extremism? Absolutely.