John Dibble
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Posts: 18,732
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« on: November 08, 2012, 02:53:14 PM » |
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You're delusional if you think Sandy had that degree of effect on the race. You're an outright loon if you think Christie did. Sandy barely affected any of the swing states he needed to win, and Obama's handling of it may have helped him some but it's unlikely it would have been enough to swing the election.
Romney lost for a number of reasons, many of them his or his party's fault.
For one he didn't have a clear message. But how could he? In order to win the primary he has to pander to the fringes that make up the base of the Republican party and the Tea Party, but he can't win the general election with that message so he has to change it for the general election. It makes it clear he'll say whatever he needs to say to get elected, so to many he just doesn't stand for anything. Just being the other guy isn't enough, especially when the other guy is well defined - whatever you think about Obama, he's consistent enough that you can know what he stands for.
Another problem is that he lost the fight over his image. He became just a rich guy who is out of touch with the problems of average people. His candid 47% comment pretty much sunk any chance of him appearing to care.
The general Republican attitude towards abortion is also not helpful as it alienates women. This is especially bad when it's usually men telling women what to do with their reproductive systems. What's worse some Republican pols managed to make a political issue out of rape! This issue is a total catch-22 for Republicans - they can't get their base to vote for them in the primaries without it, but they can't win on the national stage with it.
There's also this pervasive attitude among certain elements of the Republicans which you yourself display - anyone who doesn't agree with you is a Kool-Aid drinking idiot, the Dems are out to destroy America, Obama wasn't born here and why hasn't he shown his birth certificate even though he has, only our views are patriotic, etc. The Republican party is infested with far more craziness and ignorance than the Democrats are right now, and it's obvious to many.
On the flip side Obama just ran a better campaign. He had a better ground game and got voters to turn out in the places he needed them to turn out. The auto bailout helped a lot in Ohio as well. Job numbers weren't improving at a high rate but the numbers were still good enough to not hurt him at least.
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