Romney has to take some of the blame for the lack of turnout for him. He decided early on he could win without support of true conservatives and/or Evangelicals. No Republican has won in my lifetime without the support of both. Evangelicals and/or true conservatives also cannot win without RINOs and some “moderates” so it cuts both ways. That is why starting a third party would be foolish beyond words, but no more foolish than the G.O.P. trying to throw conservatives and Evangelicals under the bus.
Absolutely. Romney, and his team, made the assumption going in that the strong disapproval for Obama would get the base vote out, and their entire campaign was focused on getting the middle voters. Their turnout model failed completely. It is one thing to lose Ohio, which was ground zero, but to lose VA, FL, and a narrow NC win shows they were way off. Those states should have had a comfortable margin. We weren’t even close in some of the blue-leaning swing states like Iowa and Wisconsin. I thought we would at worst case see narrow margins in those states.