Romney got more votes than McCain, and Obama received fewer votes than in 2008, but he still beat Romney by 5m votes. 2008’s victory margin was 9.5m votes. Romney lost the mid-western union vote because of his anti-automaker* bailout stance, his remarks about firing people and the general sense that he was an out-of-touch plutocrat. If Romney had $3m instead of $300m, he might have had a chance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008
* In the 80’s, Reagan responded to the impending failure of the automakers by imposing trade barriers. This was the winner of 44 states in the 1980 election. Romney, a charmless nobody in politics, wanted to flush domestic automakers down the drain. It’s kind of amusing how Romney, a repeated failure in electoral politics, repeatedly alienated important voting blocs, while Reagan went out of his way to bring them on board.
Excellent comments. You, I and GeronL are essentially identifying the same demographic that cost the election in 2012 which is the 6 million strong blue collar conservative vote. They sat it out.
And to think the GOPe strategizes to replace that lost conservative demographic with Hispanic votes; idiots.