In the swing states Romney's vote total ALREADY beats McCain even with growth in the voting age population accounted for. And many swing states don't have final totals yet.
23 senate seats? Huh? Akin and Mourdock took themselves down, and in most states where Republicans lost senate seats Romney outperformed the Republican senate candidate.
The biggest chunk of decline was on Obama's side of the equation ~ not on the Republican side.
Obama had 69 million votes in 2008. 10% of those votes disappeared in 2012. McCain had 59 million votes in 2008. Republican turnout in 2010 is consistent with that turnout ~ except it doesn't fully account for population growth ~ and if you have data to the contrary, let's see the numbers!
Remember, the Democrats votes are coming from a hard won storehouse of Democrat voters, and the Republican votes are coming from a similarly hard won storeouse of Republican voters. There really aren't very many cross-overs in this.
Now about whether or not Romney was responsible for losing all those open or contested Senate seats ~ of course he was ~ much as if he'd be credited with coat-tails if they were won!
His supporters need to learn to take their lumps ~ this dude is not getting a third chance!
Hard to believe that the Romney crowd thinks that comparing 2008, when it was impossible for the GOP to win, to 2012, when it was impossible for the GOP not to win, makes any sense or carries a lot of weight.
A real candidate would have swept up the nation and soundly defeated the Carter the 2nd disaster called Obama.
Romney has always failed in politics, and his failure to motivate voters was widely predicted.
The moderate in most states did no better. The problem was with the “brand” Even when they voted for Romney, they did not vote straight ticket.