Editorial
Editorial Epilogue – Why Obama Won Nov. 2012
In contradistinction to the Romney campaign, Obama bet that despite all those things Republicans said about reduced passion for Obama, it was going to come down to their get out the vote [GOTV] effort while at the heart of Romney’s push was ‘the Rabid Obama Syndrome.’
Additionally, like we underestimated Obama’s mobilization, we did not believe that conservatives could be as blinded by their rage as they were this time around. In being so consumed with conservative memes, the Romney campaign and the GOP as a whole thought that the anti Obama passion amongst their partisans was felt across these United States.
They ignored mainstream polling and focused on those polls that showed them that their party was wining. Their points of consolation rested on models that told them that no other American president had won re-election with the unemployment rate higher than 7 percent.
Combined with their effective conservative talk radio, television and other media, it was almost inevitable that Obama would soundly lose the White Vote including those who were above 65. They also supposed that since enthusiasm for Obama had waned from his 2008 novelty, the plateau Obama had hit with women, those below 45 and also, amongst minorities like the African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans would only get into the inevitable downward spiral.
The Unprepared Republicans
The Republicans could not have been caught more flatfooted last Tuesday night! Mitt Romney’s people had, in anticipation of his victory, gone ahead to put the Romney Presidency website up; Republican strategists led by Karl Rove, Bush II’s deputy chief of staff, could not believe that Obama was leading in Ohio converse to what their ‘figures’ showed.
Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan had been assured that they had the ever so important momentum over Obama – the same kind that had led Ronald Reagan to his 1980 victory over Jimmy Carter – was on their side. When Romney eventually conceded, both the Romney and Ryan spouses pitifully wept. Ann Romney looked haggard and every bit the senior citizen she really is when she came to join her husband post concession. Mrs. Ryan shamelessly wiped a tear from her face right there on that stage in Boston.
At the same time, while Romney’s concession speech was gracious and delivered in clear nonpartisan tones, it was evident that he had not prepared a speech about losing. He had expected to win and had, in pure bravado, let his people leak the rumor that he had not written a concession speech.
