The calculations are only correct if you assume that nobody who voted for Obama in 2008 voted for Romney in 2012. With independents reporting a major shift from Obama to Romney there were likely several million new votes on the Republican side. If so, then Romney should have easily exceeded Obama’s total simply by keeping the 2008 McCain voters. The reality is that several million McCain voters stayed home in 2012. They were marginal Republican voters who weren’t inspired by Romney and didnt have sufficient fear of Obama. They were not Freerepublic members.