The consensus on Free Republic leading up to and including the early primaries was pretty solidly against Romney. It was only after it became evident that Romney would defeat the fractured conservatives did many freepers begin arguing for the lesser of two evils. JR reluctantly got to the same place not very long (roughly 3 weeks??) before the election.
Romney ran a terrible campaign, was personally weak, and excited exactly 2 people, his wife and his oldest son.
“Romney ran a terrible campaign, was personally weak, and excited exactly 2 people, his wife and his oldest son.”
Romneys biggest problem was having to run against himself in the primary and in doing so flip flopped on everything he’d ever supported as Gov of MA,
It also didn’t help that he was seen as a friend of big banks, big business and totally out of touch with the issues of a typical American.
“The consensus on Free Republic leading up to and including the early primaries was pretty solidly against Romney. It was only after it became evident that Romney would defeat the fractured conservatives did many freepers begin arguing for the lesser of two evils. JR reluctantly got to the same place not very long (roughly 3 weeks??) before the election.
Romney ran a terrible campaign, was personally weak, and excited exactly 2 people, his wife and his oldest son.”
My recollection matches this exactly. The only thing I will add by way of embellishment is that Obama won 51-47. A 2.5% swing would have altered the outcome. Given Obama’s first term record and the general state of the economy and world affairs, the Republican Party should have won handily. The tragedy here is NOT that the terrible Romney campaign led to a thrashing; rather it was that the Republicans narrowly lost an election that perhaps another candidate would have won.