Flip side: didn't Romney come awful close to winning?

but maybe the rich, white minority won't spend 2 trillion dollars on their next puppet candidate, and try to find a real one.

good luck

 

It depends on how you look at this. The truth is fairly subjective, for example the way I see what you see:

- Obama is likeable to me but that's irrelevant. Generally, the right finds him unlikeable, the left finds him likeable, the people in between will make their own subjective judgements. Certainly, I can tell you right wing middle easterners don't find him likeable as a person, saying things like "he doesn't look presidential, seems cocky, etc"

- Rich and pompous: for example, I see Obama every bit as pompous as Romney if not more. Not as rich, but there are relatable rich guys and there are pompous middle class guys. Not really indicative of anything.

- No good ideas: I think their ideas were largely similar. In a game between two sides, every little difference is overblown and every similarity is ignored. Just like in the NBA, in the Finals they don't talk about the similarities of the two teams anywhere near as much as they talk about the differences. This is maybe the most controversial, but I think if you put them in a sea of politicians, you would find that Obama is a right-ish leftie while Romney is a leftish rightie. You could see it very clearly in the "I agree with the whatever he says" 3rd debate.

- No identifiable message to resonate to America: You're a better judge of this than me. I think Romney resonates quite well with rich America. Big business owners love him. As an outsider, my only input is that he has the appearance and demeanor of the typical American father we see in movies, tv shows and other media.

- Can't do math: this doesn't matter really. Doing it right or wrong wouldn't have changed the result. Incompetence seems to be a nice cop out for what's really a marketing effort by the Romney campaign. How would it look if they were putting out Nate Silver's numbers? They wanted to show people how this would work and put it within reach by projecting victory.

IMO the fact that they came close is largely a testament to the influence of big money in politics, in media and just how relatable and flexible Mitt Romney is to those influencers. Yes there are people who genuinely voted for his policies, but IMO give both of these guys $100k and tell them to run their campaigns, Obama would crush Mitt - he's virtually the same, slightly less big money oriented, and has 4 years of experience.

You know what's scary to me? That Obama and the Dems are considered "left". The center is lost, no one knows where it is anymore as this bloody feud continues. IMO these two parties have done a beautiful and swift tango to the right and have IMO planted themselves firmly to the right of most Americans. That's more worrisome IMO than Romney's ability to buy his way to a close race in a system that openly accepts the influence of cash money as legitimate.

 

It's tough to find a candidate that satisfies everyone under the big tent AND can win a general election.

 

McCain also came very close to winning.

 

the "tent" is the 1% + white racists. not sure if that meets the definition of "big"

 

The popular vote may have been close but the electoral wasnt at all. Candidates run an electoral college campaign because really that's the bottom line. Losing 60/40 in red states where a candidate makes no effort whatsoever makes the election look closer than it would be without the electoral college.

Bush didn't govern like he barely won, neither should Obama. Elections have consequences.

 

If you take all voters over 30 combined with all white voters under 30, that's 92% of the electorate. Romney won this group.

He got crushed with minorities under 30.

 

Merely by being the other candidate, you're going to get a lot of votes from the conservative base to make it "awful(ly) close.". It's about how effectively you court the moderates, and seeing as how Romney lost almost every swing state, his campaign did a poor job of winning them over.

Since when was the Romney campaign a "disaster?" He won the GOP nomination, and beat out 10 other candidates in the process. Out of all the people running for the GOP nomination, he was easily the most moderate and the most likely to win over moderate voters. He didn't.

 

If you remove all the cases of voter fraud from Acorn, Romney wins.

 

Romney won independents by 5 points.

 

I hear you. I always identified myself to the right, but I feel Obama has been very like able. Much more so than Kerry, Gore, Hillary and any other major candidates to the right as well. I'm not exactly sure the reasons...maybe several attributes: he has a beautiful family, he approaches people better than most politicians, he never goes over the top like Gore in his rhetoric...subjective things to me of course

As far as the reason it may not have been a wipeout like it was against McCain is that the economy is still so raw and rightly or wrongly, the people held Obama to right the ship and many people have questioned the tactics and strategy regardless of party

Regarding the center being lost. That's tough, is it only a Democrat that can be center?...probably not, but it most likely.

In the end, the great divide is in our ideological differences.
For me,
I won't budge on my gun rights.
I won't stop supporting Israel - how much and extent is open to debate
I won't budge on being pro-Christian
I am indifferent on gay rights
I am against abortion for the most part. Rape, incest, health issues - acceptable to abort
...we can't all be the same. The above is core essentials that largely can't be compromised with...
Where we can possibly find middle ground better in this country is:
Better Energy conservation
Alternate energy sources
Making better, informed choices with money
Public health care
Tax rates
Responsible behavior from our leaders

...on the above, I can personally accept. But I am a right leaning moderate and where is the fun in that stance when it is an "either / or" country?

 

What?!? If Romney "won" 92% of the electorate, let's just say he received 51 percent of that (the smallest margin to have "won"), that is 43% of the total populace. You're saying Romney only received 6% (because he didn't win the popular vote) of his votes from groups other than those over 30 and all whites under 30? What world do you live in?

 

He said moderates, not independents.

 

If snark, that is wicked.

 

will have to dig through the exit polls, but this is where I pulled that

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/11/wtf-did-we-just-do-ben-domenech.html

 

why? What is it that makes you support them? Based on what? What do we owe them in your mind?Just curious.

 

Man I wouldn't go so far as to say they hate all these people. It's a tiny fanatical minority on tv *cough* Fox* that you hear. And a tiny minority of angry bigoted posts/threads online. Unfortunately the loudest mouths steal the stage and drown out sane people. I feel what your saying though. Stay away from utube comments, blog comments, etc. They're mostly a bunch of neglected kids who get off on the attention and pissing people off.

 

they are an allied democracy

 

IBTL-

Wanted to say you have the greatest screen name in history.