Why Mitt Romney Lost

Before November 2012, the last Republican to lose to Barack Obama was unfortunate. Not only was he dealt a remarkably bad hand by the global financial crisis; he also personally failed to provide plausible solutions to fix it. Then, juxtaposed with the young presidential Senator from from Illinois, Senator John McCain was the old energetic uncle that kept his vigor by wrestling with his young nieces and nephews. More importantly, in his loss, McCain gave his party the spark it needed in Sarah Palin who would then go on to feature as de facto leader of the Tea Party Movement, until she, herself, petered out of hot air.

Four years later, another Republican with an even more energized party went down in defeat to Obama. But this time, the Great White Hope lost for two simple reasons: First, the Obama campaign was just much more superior. Second, the Republican Party as a whole was simply not attractive enough in the face of today’s America.

Yes. Mitt Romney’s 2012 loss was no fault of his. His gaffes, inability to relate to ordinary people and even his lackadaisical campaign were not what brought him down. No. The Republicans run a campaign against an unpopular candidate and lost because they were running blind. For a party that had won more elections than Democrats in the 20th and 21st century; and the fact that they had done this with nothing more than tax cuts and a strong national defense, they deserve much praise and admiration. However, in 2012, their loss was predicated upon how insular they had all become.

But we need to return to the first Presidential Debate in October 2012: Within the first 60 seconds of his persuasive portrayal of an American president to almost 70 million American households, Romney erased the almost 300 million dollars that had been spent to demonize him as a blood sucking plutocrat! The man who countered the small looking president was even better and more eloquent – and much better looking than Ronald Reagan in 1980 when the Gipper went after Jimmy Carter. After that, in a show of how much people wanted Barack Obama gone, the Romney campaign that had been badly flailing was precipitously regenerated and rejuvenated with more than 10 million dollars from small donations in less than 24 hours.

And until precisely 10:00 p.m. on Election Night – when they found that Obama was, almost certainly, going to win Florida – the Romney campaign had been cock-sure that their guy was 45 President of the United States of America. That they were this brazenly confident in going up against the Obama Machine – the machine of an incumbent president – was only indicative of a party with cojones.

And again, Romney should have won. But The Republican Party got three fundamental things wrong: First, they relied on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, pollsters and strategists – their own people – to tell them what they wanted to hear. As far as they were concerned, the economy was going to fall in a ditch any day; that the Benghazi scandal was akin to Watergate and that Obama was a closet socialist and Moslem. Second, they assumed that blacks, other minorities and women would not back Obama in the fashion and enthusiasm of 2008. And third, they thought Mitt Romney’s extreme positions during the Primary season would be forgotten in the General Election.

The Sarah Palin wave, the Tea Party Frenzy and Republican Recalcitrance in Congress between 2009 and 2012 basically guaranteed Romney’s place amongst history’s great losers simply because they were much more conservative than the GOP of 2008, much less 2004 when the last Republican won reelection. As a severe conservative, Mitt Romney asked the illegal Latino population to self deport and said he would not raise taxes even if there were a reduction in spending. But this was not Mitt Romney’s fault. In a bid to win against his competition, the moderate Romney managed to sound even more conservative than Rick Santorum!

After he won a hard fought battle for the Republican nomination, the Party did not embrace Romney fully. He had to borrow about $ 15,000,000 from a bank just to counter the Obama campaign machine and after the Republican National Convention when they welcomed him; it was obvious that the Obama wound was mortally irreversible.

Lastly, in assuming that all who watched Fox News or listened to Rush Limbaugh agreed with their agenda, Republicans ensured that the man they cut off at the knees tried to run a marathon against a man with Kenyan blood carousing his veins!

Dennis Matanda,
Editor – [email protected]