If Romney does lose, why did he lose?

[Lincoln Republican]

One reason, Hurricane Sandy.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

One reason. He's a horrible candidate.

[gotapresent]

Because he didn't get enough electoral votes.

[Cryptic]

One reason. He's a horrible candidate.

This, but to be fair all the candidates that ran in the GOP primaries were horrible.  All the good ones are waiting for 2016 when they won't have to run against an incumbent. 

[Dumbo]

Two reasons:
1. No charisma. None. Remember, he lost against John McCain who once
    lost again George W. Bush and who lost again Obama.
2. Demographic change, 1,5 % every 4 years.
    If Obama get's 49 % he would get with the demographics from 2004
    probably not more than 47 %.

[Seriously?]

One reason, Hurricane Sandy.

Two Reasons:
1) Not conservative enough.
2) A liberal news media that continues to do anything other than investigate the shady dealings of the Obama administration in Benghazi. (Outside of CBS and Fox). And a candidate that dropped the ball when asked about it in the third debate.

[Frodo]

The most critical reason would be that he -and the Republican Party as a whole- can no longer rely exclusively on whites to provide the winning margins for victory.  They need to bring racial and ethnic minorities into the party, and make them feel like they belong.  And the effort needs to be sincere -mere tokens like Tim Scott and Ted Cruz are not sufficient.  They need to transform themselves as Democrats did in the 1960s.  It will take courage and vision, and I hope they have it.  

[Likely Voter]

Romney's momentum stopped with the second debate. Obama started getting a bit of mo after the 3rd debate. Sandy may have helped Obama but he was already on the trajectory to win anyway.

See 'why Romney lost' poll post
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=163706.0

there are plenty of other reasons for Romney losing

[cavalcade]

I plan to write more about this later, and may have some other points, but at the moment:

1) (by far) He's rich, and made that money by making intelligent, rational business decisions, and made much of it as capital gains/carried interest.
2) Obama's campaign people are really, really good.
3) He's awkward/untrustworthy/other personal characteristics.
4) Republican brand.  Bush, Akin, Limbaugh, etc.
5) Maybe race, this will require seeing the actual results.  Talking more about urban/suburban I'm-not-a-racist whites here.

[Lief 🗽]

Because the economy is growing (just) fast enough for an incumbent president, without major scandal, to win re-election. It's not that complicated.

[Thomas D]

He wasn't Conservative enough.

(Now we wait to see Lindsey Graham go nuts)

[Marokai Backbeat]

He hasn't taken and held a single consistent political position in his entire adult life.

[Lincoln Republican]

Sorry, I did go back to see if this topic had been covered, but I only went back 3 pages. 

I was not aware there was a why did Romney lose poll.

[President von Cat]

Romney did not lose because of Hurricane Sandy, but that storm was fundamental in exposing that Romney's October momentum was in fact complete BS.

Romney will lose because he let the Obama campaign define him early in Ohio. He backed up and tried to explain that loser of an editorial on Detroit, and then, even worse, he had no answer for Bain Capital despite it being the principle reason he lost in 1994 to Ted Kennedy and then he totalled flubbed the issue of his tax returns. The self touted managerial whiz couldn't even strategically plan for the most obvious moments of the 2012 campaign. Answer me this, Winfield, why were his Swiss and Cayman accounts still open? Politics 101 would tell you to close them.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Lol at the Republican excuses.

If Romney loses (likely when Romney loses, given the current polling numbers) it will be because in an increasingly ethnically and socially diverse country, four years after an economic crash caused by lax regulation and corporate malfeasance, the Republicans nominated an uncharismatic, unprincipled, white, elitist vulture capitalist with little political experience and from a minority religion - all while forcing him to be the front man for a party whose ideas and attitude increasingly look like they belong in the 1950s.

He will lose because he's pretty much the worst possible candidate to have at this point in time. Any worse and he would never have gotten the nomination. Any better and he'd be winning. This was the Republican's election to lose, and they have succeeded at that, if nothing else.

[J. J.]

It will be entirely by GOTV. 

[Chaddyr23]

Because he didn't get enough electoral votes.

LOL! Good answer, good answer! That should be the top answer on family feud. haha

[alexmanu]

Due to the fact that his policies have lacked specifics and are from the same strand of economics that George Bush used to put the country in deep recession. He didn't release his full tax returns and he flip flops on policy too much.

[traininthedistance]

"Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

Romney doesn't write that op-ed, we're looking at a coinflip (the fundamentals are a mixed bag, but arguably favor Obama by a sliver) rather than Obama having a 90% chance of victory.  That was the single most important event of the campaign.

[Averroës Nix]

Because the economy is growing (just) fast enough for an incumbent president, without major scandal, to win re-election. It's not that complicated.

Exactly; given the fundamentals, Republicans needed a very strong candidate, a great campaign, and a healthy dose of luck. Unfortunately for them, they didn't manage any of the three.

[Zioneer]

The most critical reason would be that he -and the Republican Party as a whole- can no longer rely exclusively on whites to provide the winning margins for victory.  They need to bring racial and ethnic minorities into the party, and make them feel like they belong.  And the effort needs to be sincere -mere tokens like Tim Scott and Ted Cruz are not sufficient.  They need to transform themselves as Democrats did in the 1960s.  It will take courage and vision, and I hope they have it.  

This, as well as the fact that Romney is a TERRIBLE candidate.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Mitt Romney is a robot manufactured in the East Germany. Robots are not allowed to be President.

[Maxwell]

One reason. He's a horrible candidate.

He hasn't taken and held a single consistent political position in his entire adult life.

These two reasons.