2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum"Did Romney’s Cheapness Doom His Campaign?"
Did Romneys Cheapness Doom His Campaign?by Alec MacGillis at the New Republic
http://www.tnr.com/blog/109940/should-romney-have-opened-his-wallet
"SNIP............................................
A few days ago I predicted some of the likely excuses for a Mitt Romney defeat, among them Hurricane Sandy, the Great Benghazi Cover-up, and a wave of nonwhite voters voting for the nonwhite candidate. All of these rationalizations have been getting heavy airing since Tuesday night. But so has another one that I wasnt expecting: that, for much of the year, the Romney campaign was impaired by a lack of funds.
This seems hard to believe, given Romneys prowess as a fundraiser and the massive support he got from well-endowed sectors like Wall Street. He did raise a lot of moneymore than $800 million, nearly as much as Barack Obama. But the GOP primaries dragged on longer than expected (dispatching heavyweights like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Herman Cain is no easy matter, you know) and had forced Romney to spend much of what hed raised. He was not allowed to spend what hed raised for the general election (donors can give up to $2,500 for the primaries and $2,500 for the general election) until after the nominating convention. This left him at a disadvantage in the May to August period when the Obama campaign shrewdly decided to spend much of its money, pummeling Romney with ads like this one to cast him as an out-of-touch, out-for-himself plutocrat. Romney and the Republicans knew this assault would be comingBill Clinton had similarly defined Bob Dole in the summer of 1996, as George W. Bush did John Kerry in 2004and the SuperPACs supporting Romney spent very heavily to counter the Obama assault, nearly $400 million over the year. But their ads were mostly attacks themselves, rather than positive defenses of Romney, and studies have suggested that the conservative groups attacks resonated far less than Obamas against Romney did.
This basic dynamic was plain to see at the time. What is new in this weeks inside accounts, though, is the revelation of just how frantic the Romney campaign was to replenish its coffers, and how much it affected overall strategy. For one thing, it meant spending a lot of time hobnobbing with high rollers when Romney, and later Paul Ryan, should have been out meeting voters. As Bloomberg reports: With both candidates opting out of public financing, Romney and his aides grumbled about the amount of time they had to spend wooing donors to raise the money to match Obama after the costly primary. Romney spent much of the summer months collecting funds in Aspen and the Hamptons, rather than campaigning in Dayton and Daytona. In the three weeks after his convention, he attended more events for donors than for voters, holding 12 rallies and at least 18 fundraisers.
But it wasnt just the lost time. According to the Wall Street Journal, the campaigns need for cash was a big driver behind one of its most pivotal decisionsto delay Romneys shift toward a more moderate tone, his Etch-a-Sketch moment, until very late in the campaign, at the first debate. Many have assumed Romney waited so long because he feared losing conservative thought-leaders like the Journal editorial page or the partys Tea Party base if he pivoted too soon. But this never really made sense -- after all, base voters would come out no matter what to reject Barack Obama, and the Journal editorialists would surely fall in line as well, as it did with comical dispatch the day after the first debate. No, according to the Journal report today, the reason Romney waited so long to soften his tone on issues like taxes and Obamacare was that he did not want to upset ... the millionaires and billionaires he needed to write checks for him, who wanted to hear the usual conservative talking points:
.............................................SNIP"
yortsed snacilbuper
(7,939 posts)applegrove
(118,718 posts)Romney lost...the biggest one probably being he was a real no soul man.
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)demhottie
(292 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)boner is orange .... does that make him a fruit .... a minority??
either we describe people by their color or we describe them by their makeup
demhottie
(292 posts)maybe I missed something in the original post
jmowreader
(50,561 posts)The way I read it, though, is Obama worries as much about "white" issues - jobs, healthcare, the economy - as he does "black" issues like civil rights. Those are actually "American" issues - blacks care about jobs and the economy too, and whites (the ones who use their tea bags to make tea rather than hats, anyway) care about civil rights. Obama is the president of the whole United States.
Romney had a couple of problems that couldn't be addressed. I don't think money was really the problem; thanks to Citizens United, 529s and dark money, he could have had those groups do all the doom and gloom and the campaign itself do the Morning In America upbeat stuff.
The first problem is the candidate. We will over the next four years be treated to "why we lost" studies that will look at everything from money to the mood of the voter and skip over the simple admission that Mitt Romney should never be president. Ever. The race was Obama's to lose the day Romney won the nomination.
Then came Romney's ground game. A president has to like oranges. He can't like oranges in Florida, apples in Washington, peaches in Georgia and raw cranberries in Wisconsin. Romney had a new position on everything every day of the week, and it hurt him.
You also have to be careful as to what you stand firm on. Enough of the electorate knows Reaganomics didn't work to want it back, and Romney stood firm on his calls for less tax and more sprnding.
Third, a candidate must connect with the voters. Think about his February trip to the Daytona 500 and the "I have friends who are NASCAR team owners" comment. For God's sake, man, you can't show up at a race people have saved all year to attend and admit you don't know any of the drivers in it.(The picture a DUer made of a Romney-sponsored car with a dog crate on the roof was cute, though.)
We then have to look at Romney's mayoral campaign. The man handed out free hot dogs at Martinsville! If you want to be mayor of St. Maries, Idaho, you hand out free hot dogs at the fair. Romney wasn't running for mayor of St. Maries.(He wouldn't win there either - the current mayor has been All Around Logger, women's division, at the town festival for the last six years, and Romney doesn't know which end of a chain saw to hold.
The most important reason they lost has a D behind his name. Barack Obama has been a stellar president. He is honest. He is hard working. He did more to unfuck a Republican catastrophe in four years than Clinton did in eight, if only because Reagan and Bush 41 were pikers at screwing shit up compared to Bush 43. He hasn't even had a decent scandal. Reagan was the Teflon President - shit didn't stick to him. Obama is the No Shit President - shit doesn't get a chance to stick to him because he hasn't made any yet.
No, the real reason the Republicans lost is they got the worst of all possible choices, ran the worst of all possible campaigns and went up against the worst nightmare they could imagine.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)is not a good business person.
OK, Mitt, it's Chapter 11, but you have no assets. Bye.
LiberalFighter
(50,989 posts)It was always about taking a business already in existence and milking everything out of it and trashing the rest.
JI7
(89,254 posts)ever got that kind of propping. the fucking whore media refusing to call out the shit he was spewing.
Servius Valerius
(13 posts)After all, over on RedState, all the conservatives are lamenting how the mainstream media unfairly boosted Obama. The fact that radicals on both sides resent NYT, WSP, ABC, CNN, etc tells me that such publications are doing something right.
Also, referring to the
is misogynistic and ugly in tone. The use of vulgarities and profanity in political discussion does little to advance any cause but that of division.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)by virtue of his $$$, he felt entitled to the presidency.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Obama out quarterbacked Romney at every set of the way.
jenw2
(374 posts)ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,989 posts)msongs
(67,421 posts)uncle ray
(3,157 posts)Arkana
(24,347 posts)to win Lieberman's seat, I thought the number was near $100 million.
brush
(53,798 posts)What about self-importing some of that money he's got stashed in the Caymen Islands and Switzerland? Too cheap to spend his own money. Tks, tsk, tsk! What's the use of being a multi-millionaire if you won't spend some of it?
ellenfl
(8,660 posts)rmoney's concession speech, leaving many to foot their own hotel bills and plane fares homes. if true, that says a lot about romney's character. i know . . . it may not have been his direct call but he is ultimately the man who sets the campaign tone.
left is right
(1,665 posts)The speech was 90 minutes after it was certain that he lost. He must have done something with that time. His speech didnt seem to have had that much time invested in it.
UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)Why not examine the root cause of Mitt Romney's loss. He lied to the voters and got caught too often.
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)mzteaze
(448 posts)Which brings up the ironic thought that he probably DOES wear shirts from Costco....http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/politics/two-mitt-romneys-wealthy-man-thrifty-habits.html?pagewanted=all
demhottie
(292 posts)not a shortage of funds, Obama's "luck" or an unwillingness to upset billionaire donors.
ROMNEY was a crap candidate and a crap human being and he failed to fool the American people about who and what he is. End of story- on the Romney side at least.
Servius Valerius
(13 posts)I'm new to DU, and full disclosure, also joined RedState today. I lean progressive in the case of most social policies and tack centrist for fiscal policies. But whatever your stances are, I strive to appreciate the person behind them, and beg a moderation of tone.
I voted for Barack Obama twice. But I stand against calling McCain or Romney "crap human beings."
Crap policies- yes. Crap people- no. I believe we are all called to love one another, even when we disagree about fundamental truths and unconditional principles.
demhottie
(292 posts)Romney en brief:
He harassed a woman in the hospital and pressed her to sacrifice her life for her eight week old fetus, them went on to harass her family. She moved out of state to get away from him.
His belief that he would win was based in whole or largely in part on his knowledge of fixing the election and the suppression of minority votes.
He refused to rein in the virulently racist elements of his party.
... To name a few.
Why don't you read more before giving lectures ?
Servius Valerius
(13 posts)beac
(9,992 posts)but he's still a crap human being who destroyed thousands of lives to make himself and his cronies rich.
And he's never showed a damn bit of remorse.
Arkana
(24,347 posts)He's been a shitty human being ever since he tackled that gay kid to the ground in high school and shaved his hair off.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)which he was the leader of. These are the Republic values I speak of:
Voter suppression
War on Women
Calling a large voting bloc "Illegal Aliens"
Lying about Jeep... continually
Hatin' the Gays
Disregarding any voting bloc that isn't white
Having a "Relief event" that was really a campaign rally
Not listening to what the majority of the country wants, raising taxes on the rich
Obstructing everything President Obama and the Democrats have tried doing over the last 2 years
Racism
Having the hubris that you could buy yourselves a President
Not knowing your own base (a Mormon was never going to go over with Evangelicals)
Am I missing any? I'm sure I am but I think this pretty much gets across the REAL reasons why Romney and the Republics lost. And if they ignore these things and continue to fight the tax rate raise that 60+% of the American people want, 2014 is going to be a sad year for them.
PsychProfessor
(204 posts)All of Romney's advertising was much more expensive than President Obama's especially late in the campaign. Rodney's campaign did not buy their advertising time early when it was relatively cheap to do it. They decided it would be wiser to retain fliexibility rather than locking in the rates early as the president'scampaign did.
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)While on paper Romney and Obama seemed similar in campaign money, the truth is that Romney had 80% more money spent on his behalf, than the President did, thanks to the Supreme Court.
This is kinda bullshit... like saying the New Coke would have succeeded if they had a bigger marketing budget. Sometimes your product stinks. Romney had plenty of money spent on his behalf, and it eclipsed what the President had in ads.
jmowreader
(50,561 posts)Read a little about New Coke. Turns out Pepsi fucked New Coke - the chairman of Pepsi launched a very sophisticated effort to demonize New Coke because it was tastier than Pepsi.
They started a group, Old Cola Drinkers of America, to demonize New Coke, and installed some loud guy as its spokesman. Coke's lawyers had him do a blind taste test between old and new Cokes. He couldn't tell the difference in three tastings and picked New Coke as his preference in the fourth.
dinger130
(199 posts)it was because he didn't open up his heart and soul....... he doesn't possess those things.
anobserver2
(836 posts)Also -- I was quite shocked to read this:
But at Bostons TD Garden, where 800 Romney workers were staffing phones and computers in coordination with the field workers to oversee the turnout, the surge in traffic was so great that the system didnt work for 90 minutes, causing panic as staffers frantically tried to restore service. Some campaign workers also reported that they had incorrect PINS and had not been informed that they needed certification to work at polling places.
It sounds like no one was actually in charge of the Romney campaign, and no one knew anything about running a campaign. Good thing they lost, so they could not continue their stupidity by pretending to run the country!!!
From:
ORCA, Mitt Romneys high-tech get-out-the-vote program, crashed on Election Day
Online voter-turnout system failed Tuesday
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2012/president/candidates/romney/2012/11/10/orca-mitt-romney-high-tech-get-out-the-vote-program-crashed-election-day/gflS8VkzDcJcXCrHoV0nsI/story.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2
wishlist
(2,795 posts)In swing states in the last two days they ran continuous negative ads such as the one accusing Obama of running a campaign of hate, anger and division. While Obama ads were the Colin Powell endorsement, a positive one of Obama speaking into camera and the only negative one a reminder of the 47% tape. Romney & Co spent plenty of money including Pennsylvania and the atrociously dishonest Jeep ads.
LiberalFighter
(50,989 posts)Party not in power determines the date of their national convention. They could have held it earlier but they scheduled it so the Democratic Party was limited in their choices.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Nika
(546 posts)Good riddance to bad garbage; him and Ryan both.