The article is consistent with what I’ve been arguing since election night: the lower Republican vote total was a result of marginal voters who were not sufficiently motivated by Romney to head to the polls. It wasn’t the active party members or Tea Party members or politically active Evangelicals or conservative Catholics who failed to show up - it was Joe Six Pack who was royally P.O.’d in 2010 but who didn’t believe Romney would really make a difference in 2012. Why? Because Romney couldn’t hit the hot button issues like the Tea Party did in 2010. Romney had no credibility attacking Obamacare when he was the author of Romneycare. He had no credibility on issues like homo-marriage and abortion, because people know he is actually in favour of both. He had no credibility on fiscal responsibility, because he spent the entire election saying that he would preserve medicare and Social Security as they are, only operate them more “efficiently”. He had no credibility on his promise to appoint conservative judges because he has a track record of appointing liberal judges. Those of us who are politically aware know Romney would still have been far better than Obama, but for the apathetic voter there wasn’t much on the surface to distinguish one from the other.
You sure got that right.