Obama Wins Florida
The good news just keeps coming:
President Barack Obama was declared the winner of Florida’s 29 electoral votes Saturday, ending a four-day count with a razor-thin margin that narrowly avoided an automatic recount that would have brought back memories of 2000.
No matter the outcome, Obama had already clinched re-election and now has 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206.
This was a drubbing. I am concerned that we are seeing a realignment as occurred in the 1930s — and that our country will never recover.
Roger that. Recovery is not happening.
mg (31009b) — 11/10/2012 @ 3:44 pmit’s gonna crash and burn and the obamawhores will be gleeful and vindictive in that order
it’s how they roll
happyfeet (6d5c2c) — 11/10/2012 @ 3:45 pmAmerica is not so weak as you claim, sir.
new person (c48a04) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:15 pmit’s a remarkably feeble and cowardly little country i think
happyfeet (6d5c2c) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:25 pmwonder what all the Obamabots are gonna do when they find out we can’t pay for all that free stuff forever and they don’t get any of it anymore.
kinlaw (2fb87c) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:37 pmNot that I doubt the outcome or deny what happened in this election, but its interesting that Obama won Florida by approx 75K votes – and in St Lucie County Florida there were 75K more votes than there are…ummm… registered voters:
http://www.punditpress.com/2012/11/breaking-st-lucie-county-florida-had.html
Kaisersoze (d67f66) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:38 pmI called 330 on election night. I’m no Nate Silver, but that’s pretty darn close. With Florida’s result in, I won the bet with my boss.
Of course, now we are stuck with 4 more years of the empty suit / teleprompter guy, but winning a bet with your boss is still a good thing.
carlitos (49ef9f) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:40 pmI surved over to that Pundit Press blog, and his sourcing is very thin. For many claims, he links back to himself, and for some claims, his links just don’t work. Color me skeptical.
carlitos (49ef9f) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:44 pmYeah, I wish we could point to fraud for this loss, but we can’t. Its worse, its stupidity.
kinlaw (2fb87c) — 11/10/2012 @ 4:53 pmNot quite the confederacy, but close enough. Maybe the confederacy minus Yankees who went south to retire and some homos.
sleeeepy (b5f718) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:22 pmLink warning – this is to commie pinko Mother Jones.
A Venn diagram of every Obama conspiracy theory.
carlitos (49ef9f) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:30 pmBarack Obama won 50.5% of the vote, and won each of the swing states by roughly 100,000 votes. Let’s hold off on the realignment talk for a while.
Paul Zummo (703891) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:35 pmAs a Floridian I can confirm that the problem with Florida is all these Floridians.
Pious Agnostic (2c3220) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:36 pmflorida is fun today i ambled about with the wild horses of paynes prairie they let you walk right up to them
epcot is lame and stupid though
happyfeet (6d5c2c) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:43 pmI agree with @12; its not a realignment just yet
kinlaw (2fb87c) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:44 pmIt looks like the idiot, leftists who fled the NE and California for other states that hadn’t been destroyed by idiot, leftist policies are now voting to implement the same idiot, leftist policies in those states.
Where are they going to flee to next when they have turned Texas and Arizona and Colorado and Florida and Virginian and North Carolina into California and Massachusetts?
Do they ever think about about anything? Do they ever think?
WarEagle82 (97b777) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:54 pmAnother reason not to panic: see this map.
Of course I don’t mean to imply that there is nothing to be concerned about. 7 of the 8 largest states are either solid blue or have swung Democrat the past two years, though it is notable that the one red state (Texas) is the one gaining the most population. There are also about a dozen states that haven’t gone GOP since Bush I, and many of those were at least one time semi-reliable Republican states.
But from a purely partisan political standpoint, the election results do not spell doom for the GOP.
Nope, they just spell doom for the country generally.
Paul Zummo (703891) — 11/10/2012 @ 5:57 pm16 – mass holes suck. On the passenger seat of their car, they all have a self prepared notebook describing why they are the smartest person in the world.
mg (31009b) — 11/10/2012 @ 6:08 pmPlus, everyone gets a trophy!!
Was worried this would happen. A while back there was a thread about how it was all about the economy (it’s the economy, stupid) — and I questioned that, citing the incumbant FDR being elected over and over while the economy languished.
Rush is right. People want a Santa Clause government and will believe in people they perceive to “care more”. We are in big trouble.
School Marm (36b987) — 11/10/2012 @ 6:22 pm“Barack Obama won 50.5% of the vote… Let’s hold off on the realignment talk for a while.”
sleeeepy (b5f718) — 11/10/2012 @ 6:26 pmIt’s 51% and the margin is bigger than GW Bush’s when it was claimed he had a mandate.
More drones over Yemen. Obomba’s such a commie.
Slurpy is on a bender again. Confederacy! Racists!
JD (185efa) — 11/10/2012 @ 6:43 pm“never recover”
Well my predictions have proven to be worth less than their price.
I don’t see the military going into that good night without a whimper. Its a big, armed country.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 11/10/2012 @ 6:59 pmhttp://www.punditpress.com/2012/11/in-florida-obama-got-over-99-in-broward.html
narciso (ee31f1) — 11/10/2012 @ 7:01 pmIt’s 51% and the margin is bigger than GW Bush’s
No, it is 50.5% – Bush received 50.7%.
when it was claimed he had a mandate
Faulty analysis then doesn’t justify faulty analysis now.
Paul Zummo (703891) — 11/10/2012 @ 7:04 pm19. The one bright spot, in less than a decade Santa Claus will prove a homeless, addict, turning tricks for mouthwash with Bill Maher and Larry O’Donnell types.
With significant increases in tax rates revenues will crash thru the lithosphere. Greece nuthin, Argentina, babies.
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 11/10/2012 @ 7:07 pmDespite all the “suck it up and figure where we conservatives went wrong because The Results Are In” talk, I STILL believe there was massive voter fraud.
And (sigh) we’re just standing around talking about how “next time” we’ll come up with more-engaging candidates, better talking points, more-targeted advertising, la-la-la, whatever. (Oh, and “Obama owns the economy” and “Obama owns his foreign policy disasters”. Such a comfort for when the Depression hits, and then the Jihadists-with-nukes do, too.)
My big question now is HOW DO WE GUARANTEE A FAIR AND LEGAL VOTE next time?
(1) Letting everybody with a “verified address” vote is stupid. How do we stop this insanity when TPTB support it?
(2) Using voting machines is stupid. They can be hacked, or be programmed to miscount votes. We need to have PHYSICAL ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS that can be reviewed by other eyes. How do we get rid of the (admittedly efficient) voting machines?
(3) Transmitting our election data to some Spanish company (in order to have them extract and tally results from the various database formats which different brands of voting machines use) is also stupid. And how do we know what kind of security those guys have? Can THEIR servers be hacked? Probably. But if we go to hard-copy documents, there will be no need to worry about this. If we fix #2, we fix #3.
The vote is THE ONLY POWER WE HAVE against our various levels of government. We have not done a good job of protecting the sanctity of the ballot box. We have to fix things so that we KNOW our votes count. (But, … how?)
A_Nonny_Mouse (81ae39) — 11/10/2012 @ 7:48 pmI agree with #26 but would add that was also in part due to “low information” voters. Like the 20 something on Fox who was thrilled that JEF won, because she and her parents now had free healthcare! Boy,(is that racist?), is she in for a big surprise.
Gazzer (4a6b3c) — 11/10/2012 @ 7:59 pmThis was a fluke, not a drubbing. Romney was unquestionably leading throughout October according to both Gallup and Rasmussen. The storm knocked out both firms and when they came back a few days before the election, Romney’s lead had vanished.
Really the only news at that time was the storm itself, where the media played up Obama’s role, Benghazi got moved to page 26, and Romney was nowhere to be seen.
It is really hard to say what happened, but everyone (apparently including Obama) expected Romney to win. But he didn’t.
But it isn’t a realignment any more than Carter beating Ford was a realignment. We’ve re-elected a failed President and he’s going to stay failed.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:09 pmFirst, Texas A&M beat Alabama. Farmers fight.
Second, Texas will soon be a blue state. When that happens, and it will as sure as California, what we do and what we think will no longer matter.
Standing athwart history and shouting stop no longer works. The United States is now Great Britain.
No longer great and no longer British nor Norwegian, no longer Irish nor Mexican nor any other ethnic group assimilating for a great nation.
We are simply a weigh station of tribes waiting on the next train for what we can get from the teat of the holy government.
Democrats have worked long and hard for this. They deserve the credit and the outcome for their stupidity.
We are now
Ag80 (b2c81f) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:14 pmCombined total, or per swing state?
On the other hand, the election had about fourteen million fewer votes than the previous one.
Michael Ejercito (2e0217) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:17 pmThe number of people who are concerned about the economy is always large, and largest when it is going bad. You can only run things so long by stealing from Peter to subsidize Paul, and that’s all Obama has got going.
He’s going to continue to run the economy on a wealth-destroying binge, which can only lead to stagnation and inflation and new recession, all of which you’ll see by 2014 if not next year. They’ll be trying to tell people that 9% unemployment and 15% inflation is the “new normal” but it won’t work.
Hopefully, we’ll have candidates who can talk to fiscal matters without going on about how rape isn’t all that bad, or how they think contraception is the Devil’s work.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:19 pmOn the other hand, the election had about fourteen million fewer votes than the previous one.
Perhaps we should be thinking that the realignment is away from BOTH parties. Maybe they just want fewer control freaks. Free markets, free personal lives, smaller government, less war.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:22 pm“I am concerned that we are seeing a realignment as occurred in the 1930s”
Anything’s possible, I suppose. The Dems have improved their perfomance in the last three elections, but it’s nothing even remotely like the 1932 election.
Roosevelt crushed Hoover in the presidential election (57% to 40% popular vote) and the Dems won a senate majority (59-36) and a huge house majority (313-117).
And, that was a BIG and longlasting realignment.
Dave Surls (46b08c) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:34 pmYou can’t beat an Obama-phone. You never can and you never will.
Ag80 (b2c81f) — 11/10/2012 @ 8:37 pmThat’s crazy talk. Why do you hate America?
carlitos (49ef9f) — 11/10/2012 @ 9:34 pmI would like to read the story around the realignment after FDR died, the amendment to prevent multiple terms and the decision to slash spending.
It might be a guidepost for the future.
Patricia (be0117) — 11/10/2012 @ 9:42 pmI would like to read the story around the realignment after FDR died, the amendment to prevent multiple terms and the decision to slash spending.
FDR had the top rate up at 90% even before WW2, trying to balance a budget with no taxpayers. ANd of course, every time the rate went up, another group of high earners decided to retire, and the people they used to employ went begging.
It took until 1962 for the top rate to come down from 90% to 70% (and the liberals screamed at Kennedy for doing it). It took another 20 years for the top rate to come down from 70% to 50% (and the liberals screamed at Reagan for doing it). Reagan kept going until it was 28%. Now it’s going to be 40% again.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/10/2012 @ 11:52 pmWe could always “Go Galt” and actively work to hasten the collapse.
Parts of NYC are already into 3rd world status.
http://darthchocolate.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/parts-of-new-york-city-are-no-better-than-a-third-world-country/
Let them go to hell. They made a deal with the devil.
Darth Chocolate (df4cf7) — 11/11/2012 @ 3:30 amTexas will soon be a blue state.
Romney’s margin of victory in Texas was four points higher than McCain’s, in line with national averages. Further, Hispanics in the state consistently are more favorable to Republicans than they are elsewhere. This talk of Texas turning blue is simply not grounded in reality.
Paul Zummo (703891) — 11/11/2012 @ 5:22 am“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
And that “moment” has arrived!
Big Robert (04b059) — 11/11/2012 @ 6:20 amMaybe if whites voted like they did 04 and 08 …..
Rodney King's Spirit (951136) — 11/11/2012 @ 6:33 amGoogle Saint Lucie county Florida for information about voter fraud. It sounds as if the fraud could have been enought to trigger at least a recount if not a win for Romney. I doubt that they will honestly evaluate these and other claims of voter fraud.
I know of a number of people who were told that they had already voted (when they showed up as the polling places opened) as well as people who had their names purged from the voter lists improperly as well as people who moved out of the state two presidential cycles or more ago and are still listed.
Sabba Hillel (816c7e) — 11/11/2012 @ 6:52 amOne thing this election proved is that results no longer seem to matter.
Obama has DESTROYED the economy. And he knows it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been bribing and threatening all these people to keep quiet about mass layoffs until after the election.
50% of voters have become abject morons, incapable of discerning basic truth, or simply don’t care, knowing they can live off the wealth of the other 50% for some time to come.
The GOP consistently fails to offer a solid, pro-liberty alternative to the Marxist party. And until that happens, these morons will continue to vote for “free stuff.”
I don’t see the GOP changing so we will continue to be governed by Marxist idiots giving away everything they can beg, borrow and steal.
Welcome to the 3rd world…
WarEagle82 (97b777) — 11/11/2012 @ 8:10 amI don’t agree it’s a realignment. I think most voters were duped by fake good news about the economy. When they find out there is no recovery, they will feel duped and take it out on the Democrats.
Obama’s second term is already falling apart. The truth about Benghazi is coming out, the fact that he blackmailed Petraeus is coming out, we will continue to investigate Fast & Furious. His second term will be marked by scandal after scandal (most of them, possibly, from his first term) and economic failure.
When his second term is over, the meme that Democrats are super-liberal, screw up the economy, and can’t be trusted to run the country will be pretty well established again. Playing that card (Dems are irresponsible ultra-liberals) is the best strategy Republicans have for winning elections.
It’s hard to play that card after George W. Bush, and the financial crisis that Republicans stupidly accepted blame for (instead of telling the real story about who was pushing for greater low-income housing lending). We will get the card back. In 2014 the GOP will have a great year. Dems will be demoralized and stay home because of the crappy economy and not having Obama on the ticket. We should pick up a bunch of Senate seats from 2008.
If we have a good candidate who isn’t afraid to face the Dem smear machine (to have his entire life opened up to surveillance) who has conservative values, we can win. Mitt Romney was a boy scout but he was no conservative. If elections are all about convincing people you care about them and that you’re like them, we can run a “severe” conservative as long as he has the charisma to win people over and convince them that he cares about is why he’s enacting a “severely” conservative agenda. We might have to take someone who had an affair. They just need to be open and honest with the American people about it, and not be afraid of the slime machine. Young people will understand that people have no privacy anymore. After all, they live in the age of Facebook.
We do need to drop anti-abortion/anti-gay extremism from the party platform. That means if a state legislature or referendum allows gay marriage, the GOP should accept it. (If state judges impose it by fiat, the platform can be opposed to it.) It means the GOP should only focus on preventing abortions of late-term babies. The platform should express disapproval of all abortions not necessary to save the life of the mother, but leave it at disapproval rather than calling for a ban. If women want free birth control from the government, then whatever. It’s not a big deal. We can cave on this “war on women” shit in a small way. We need to round off the sharp edges of our policy, drop the unpopular but unimportant things, and stick to what’s really important.
Daryl Herbert (8383cf) — 11/11/2012 @ 8:24 amThe election was indeed a drubbing. Conclusions other than that the country will be ruined are possible. A state of denial about the age of the earth, global warming, and the president’s birthplace might indicate … misalignment with reality? Just possibly?
Reality (2cf4b4) — 11/11/2012 @ 11:47 amEvery time I think that Obama has the upper hand, I am reminded that socialism has failed everywhere.
It cannot work. Our sole job is to provide the constant message that it isn’t working because it CANNOT work, and to have the ready alternative that works most of the time.
Sure, stupid people can break free markets, but the most common and sure way to break a free market is to do what Obama is doing. This message will have more meaning when inflation starts rising in 2013-2014.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/11/2012 @ 2:06 pmBTW, if the social conservatives felt they were left out in 2012, wait until they see 2014.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/11/2012 @ 2:07 pmThe Governor tried to purge the voter-rolls of ineligible and phony voters, but was resisted from most of the usual suspects.
askeptic (2bb434) — 11/11/2012 @ 4:28 pmIt might make a good Master’s or Doctoral Thesis to compare the voter-rolls of 2012 with the Census Rolls of 2010.
Comment by Daryl Herbert — 11/11/2012 @ 8:24 am
Martin O’Malley, or another Progressive, will just campaign on the issue that they will continue the fine work of President Obama in trying to overcome all of the mistakes made in the eight-years of the Bush Administration.
The Dems were still campaigning against Hoover in 1952, why would they change styles now?
It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it!
askeptic (2bb434) — 11/11/2012 @ 4:32 pmIn the sense of “learning from experience”, then, no.
The defining quality of a mature (that is, not college-age) liberal is an utter and complete lack of wisdom aka common sense. They literally cannot learn from mistakes, hence they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
The forces that used to cull these fools from the gene pool — tigers, lions, and bears (oh, my!) — have been reduced to impotence.
H. L. Mencken, “Bayard vs. Lionheart,” Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Aviary Enthusiast (8e2a3d) — 11/11/2012 @ 6:24 pm“Reality” says “The election was indeed a drubbing. ”
I guess if you redefine drubbing in a manner that would suggest winning a basketball game by a 3-pointer is a drubbing. Or winning a football game 52-49 a drubbing.
JD (318f81) — 11/11/2012 @ 6:55 pmI dunno, JD. That a piece of a SCOAMF, leech, community organizer, golf-playing, Chicago Macnine tool, could beat a man like Romney, I suppose it could be considered a drubbing.
Serious comment.
nk (875f57) — 11/11/2012 @ 7:15 pmThey don’t have a majority in the house, their margin was half that of 2oo8, and they have fewer Senate seats then that period, it would have been nice to have Murdock or Mack, but it was an underwhelming result,
narciso (ee31f1) — 11/11/2012 @ 7:16 pmObama will have more flexibility. He, Putin, and Hu, will attempt more three-ways.
Not a serious comment.
nk (875f57) — 11/11/2012 @ 7:28 pmFraud.
Fraud.
and more fraud…
this election is about as honest as an interview with Villarboboso.
America is now a third world country.
redc1c4 (403dff) — 11/11/2012 @ 9:32 pmPalms up third world country.
mg (31009b) — 11/12/2012 @ 2:25 amWell, where were we before? There’s the old world, Europe, as opposed to
nk (875f57) — 11/12/2012 @ 2:45 amColumbus’sAmerigo’s new world. What’s next? Who came up with the “third world” nonsense in the first place?Forgive me, mg.
nk (875f57) — 11/12/2012 @ 3:28 amnk- How about palms up banana republic?
mg (31009b) — 11/12/2012 @ 3:36 amI don’t really believe it. The disparity between the public sentiments seen out there and the recent history just doesn’t make sense in this context. I think the fraud was as widespread and complete as anyone has ever claimed in the history of US voting. It’s so complete no one has even seen it yet, and it’ll never be proved. But when forum “like/dislike” ratios are as high as 10-1 against the current admin and its policies, that doesn’t fit to a 50.001-49.999 ballot result. Sure, not everyone who hits a “like” or “dislike” button votes, but 8 non-voting and 2 voting seems a trifle high.
Again, not the slightest bit of demonstrable evidence, but someday I predict someone’s going to produce a reliable statistical analysis of the data available and demonstrably show that this election’s results were utterly fraudulent.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Aviary Enthusiast (8e2a3d) — 11/12/2012 @ 4:07 amDon’t blame the voters for this election. Voters want values and Obama offered them while Romney didn’t. Powerline’s John Hinderaker suggests what we could do on abortion and gay marriage. The other big issue is immigration and Rick Perry was right. We didn’t have to offer amnesty — although we’ll probably have to now — but we did need to let Hispanics know we’ll provide basic health care through community clinics and give their kids an equal chance to succeed in higher education. Romney sent the opposite message and we may have lost Hispanics for a generation.
The fools here aren’t the voters. The fools are Republicans who think we need secular nominees who are decent men, and that vision and values don’t matter. Values matter to everyone, and Democrats’ values won this time.
One last thing while I’m ranting. By picking Ryan instead of Rubio, Romney not only lost his slim chance to appeal to values voters and Hispanics, he also ruined the GOP’s best challenge to Obama’s economic policies. Instead of viewing Ryan as a policy wonk when he challenges Obama on the deficit in the next 4 years, the public will see Ryan as a partisan sore loser. And if they don’t, the Democrats and the media will be only too happy to remind them.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 11/12/2012 @ 6:36 amPatterico,
I said last fall that we should let the fiscal default happen. I still believe that. It will at least stop the growth of even bigger government.
Jeff Crump (63c85a) — 11/12/2012 @ 6:42 amI agree with much DRJ, but I see things a little different about Ryan. I think Ryan survived politically much better than Palin did, he was never personally as vilified. When the economy goes bust Ryan will be in a position to say “we told you so”.
But, as long as more than 50% of the public believe the propaganda like the current economy is the problem of Bush I don’t think it matters who the candidate is or what the message is. We need to somehow educate on the truth day in and day out. it would be easier in a totalitarian country where most people know that the official news is slanted for the powers that be. It is harder to wrap one’s head around the idea that the majority of the news media is voluntarilu distorting things for their own gain. I didn’t come to that conclusion myself until I was 43 or so.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 11/12/2012 @ 6:47 amDRJ–IMO Rubio would have been even worse demonized and trashed by the dem-media complex had he been the VP nominee this year because on so many levels Marco is quite obviously very dangerous to the liberal brand both now and way into the future. They would have found something-anything and wasted no time to ruin him. Maybe this way he will have a better chance of going into 2016 strong and in a way he chooses to define himself rather than the way they try to define him as someone utterly unrecognizable to those who know him and work with him him. We’ll see.
Also, I don’t think Ryan for the next 2 years will be rendered as ineffective as you worry with respect to budget stuff and policy wonkiness. Even as they demonize him publicly, many dems in congress respect his knowledge and know-how. Believe it or not there are dems knowledgeable in, and as scared about, the “cliff” as many of us are. They, unfortunately, were at the disadvantage of not being able to admit it during the election period.
Also I do think there were plenty of voting “irregularities” in some key precincts especially in Florida, and several other swing states.
elissa (5e610d) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:02 amI definitely agree with DRJ that Romney’s immigration stance, selected in order to outflank his primary competition, cost him dearly in the general.
What’s frustrating is that I’m sure Romney would have governed far more moderately, but all the ‘etch a sketch’ and ‘flip flopper’ attacks made it difficult for Romney to maneuver to a new position. I’m sure his initial plan was to find an issue or two to make the conservatives balk at the conservative candidates, rely on the moderate Republicans to give Romney a plurality, and then try to seek the center before the general election.
And it came across as politics instead of leadership. Give me a less slick but more principled leader any day. I think Americans could easily have elected a Republican last week. This was our election to lose.
Had a Republican won, pundits would be saying no democrat could win in the circumstances Obama did. Look at the world and the economy! We gave this one away.
My hope is first that conservatives have better candidates in 2016, but second that we stand our ground instead of jumping from one to another, separated, letting a plurality of moderates pick the most ‘electable’ candidate (who just happens to lose).
Dustin (73fead) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:05 am“But, as long as more than 50% of the public believe the propaganda like the current economy is the problem of Bush I don’t think it matters who the candidate is or what the message is. We need to somehow educate on the truth day in and day out.”
MD in Philly – If you look at the breakdown of the vote, I believe Romney won something like 60% of the vote of people 45 or older, the common sense vote, the vote of people who have some life experience under their belts and are less likely to vote on pure emotion.
I disagree that Romney offered no values – he offered the traditional American vision of the freedom to succeed, less government intrusion in our lives and restoring global American leadership. Obama offered four more years of the same, negativity, and an increasingly government centric society.
Young voters aren’t smart enough to see that they and their children will have to pay the price for Obama’s unsustainable fiscal irresponsibility one way or another. They are more interested in free stuff, but near term, they are going to feel the first bite with Obamacare in 2014.
I wonder why the anti-Obama voters stayed home rather than going to the polls
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:10 amYoung voters aren’t smart enough
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:13 amtrue that. i voted for carter’s re-election in 1980…
I wonder why the anti-Obama voters stayed home rather than going to the polls
Comment by daleyrocks
True, although I have heard it said that in the swing states that mattered the votes weren’t really down from McCain.
Was 2008 when they had the marriage vote in CA? i think alot of people voted in 08 for McCain that were stirred up by other things as well, and those were many of the people who did not come out this time.
Who knows how many R votes were not counted and if they were in states that it mattered- i have no idea if that was a significant factor, but I haven’t seen alot of evidence for that claim. even if all of the irregularities in Philadelphia wwas vote stealing, that alone wouldn’t have meant anything for the election result.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:19 amlater.
It is now essentially illegal to have more than 49 employees who work more than 29 hours a week. Yep, that will kill job growth.
RecklessProcess (b3a1f5) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:35 amdaleyrocks,
First, Romney didn’t articulate those vpbasic American values in a strong, meaningful way. I’m sure he believes in them and he is life exemplifies those values, but he didn’t hit them hard the way Obama did his issues.
Second, those values don’t appeal to young voters. They want to hear politicians talk about their issues — things like abortion, contraception, school loans, marijuana, gay marriage, and animal rights — and many of them vote based on these issues. We don’t have to pander but we can’t ignore them, or we send the message that both the issues and the people aren’t important.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:36 amSorry for the typos. I’m having an autocorrect day.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:37 amFrustration.
Those are great values, and I’m glad Romney offered them. Yet I think Romney was dishonest about that because his record includes gun bans and Romneycare. Taxes or fees on basic freedom. Double digit spending increases.
Dustin (73fead) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:38 amThe Romney campaign failed to get the turnout numbers it needed, mainly because their 30,000 election day volunteers had no information on who to get out.
The Romney computer system “ORCA” failed utterly due to it never really being tested. And nobody trained.
Too secret. Too stupid.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:43 am“Yet I think Romney was dishonest about that because his record includes gun bans and Romneycare. Taxes or fees on basic freedom. Double digit spending increases.”
Dustin – Is Patterico going to become a recycling blog?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:47 amWe sometimes pick on Leviticus, who is very open about his disdain for American politics in general, and who was pretty universally uncomplimentary about both Romney and Obama. I think he’s wrong but I never doubted that he had given it a lot of thought and that he was being sincere in describing how he felt about it all. Often commenters here argued with him–saying that he was being naive and/or that between choices (even not good ones) in an election there is usually one choice that is better than the others if one really thinks it through.
If there are enough other youngish, and intelligent but cynical citizens like Leviticus out there (as I suspect there are) who did not want to “enable” either major party or support either party, it could have made a difference in the outcome. Will these “meh” voters ever re-integrate into the system? How might team R. attempt to engage them for next time?
elissa (5e610d) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:49 am“Second, those values don’t appeal to young voters. They want to hear politicians talk about their issues — things like abortion, contraception, school loans, marijuana, gay marriage, and animal rights — and many of them vote based on these issues. We don’t have to pander but we can’t ignore them, or we send the message that both the issues and the people aren’t important.”
DRJ – I disagree over whether Romney articulated those issues enough. As I indicated in my comment, I do agree that young voters react more on an emotional than rational basis. That was more than amply confirmed taking my youngest for college visits over the past four days and listening to the misinformation coming out of the mouths of students and the crap the were concerned about. Diversity and social justice for all! Same sex marijuana!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 11/12/2012 @ 7:54 amelissa,
Here’s the advice of a lonely college Republican on just that: How can the staid party of wealth pull in the younger demographic.
If Republicans hope to win in 2016 and beyond, they need to change everything about the way they sell themselves. They’re viewed by the 18-24 set as the “party of the rich” and as social bigots. That harsh, flawed opinion could be rectified if Republicans started presenting their positions in a different way.
My age group is one pocket of voters who Republicans should be carrying with ease. Youth is all about rebellion and freedom and independence—things the Democratic Party preaches but doesn’t deliver. Behind their clever one-liners lurks a government shackle waiting to be slapped onto the wrists of every young voter they ensnare.
I’ve always wondered why the R’s don’t approach it something like that. My friends from 35 years ago, rebels and protestors, are now Obama loyalists. There is an immense irony that they are sucklings at the teat of The Man now. And they are totally clueless about it. More interestingly, no matter how much it’s pointed out to them, they cannot cogently articulate their reasons, other than the usual company line of the left: a big, messy emotional splatter.
Dana (292dcf) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:01 amIf they don’t care about their objective circumstances, Dana, the price of food and fuel, chronic unemployment, rather then handy meme, then they can’t be helped.
narciso (ee31f1) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:14 amComment by DRJ — 11/12/2012 @ 7:36 am
Second, those values don’t appeal to young voters. They want to hear politicians talk about their issues — things like abortion, contraception, school loans, marijuana, gay marriage, and animal rights — and many of them vote based on these issues.
Don’t forget amnesty for illegal immigrants, especially for those brought to the United States as children, because that’s an issue for college students as well. There was a well organized effort, at least in some states, by the Democratic Party to get young people who were here illegally to ask their friends to vote for Obama.
It’s not just Hispanics. Increased legal immigration is also an issue probably. Asians trended more Democratic. Even a majority of Cubans in Florida voted for Obama. That could ither be because of a feeling that tough sanctions on Cuba just hurts the ordinary people in Cuba, or it could be identification with other Latinos. Cubans themselves don’t need amnesty. Cubans get amnesty as soon as they arrive in the United States. The process takes a few months. (If caught on the water, they get sent back since 1980.) The Castro regime starting Jan 13 will now make passports available to most of its people making the amount of family unification immigration or vistor’s visas allowed a matter of more concern to Cubans Americans.
There was also the voter ID laws and limitations on early voting, which were used by the Democratic Party to gin up turnout of their base, especially in Ohio.
Both of these types of almost existential issues trump general feelings about the incumbent or his challenger.
Sammy Finkelman (6010d0) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:33 amThe exit polls didn’t ask how voters were affected by the “Dream Act” or voter ID laws but they probably had a considerable effect, at least for increasing Democratic turnout,
Sammy Finkelman (6010d0) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:35 amObama won by bribing people and waiting for the bill to come due. Everyone thinks we’re a bunch of fearmongers over ObamaCare, because all these great things are happening – you get your premium money back! your kids can stay on your plan until they are 26!
What we need to do is explain to people exactly what will happen, then ruthlessly rub their noses in it when it does happen. Companies will continue to lay off people and refuse to employ full-time, form W-2 workers. The recovery will feature independent contractors, part-time workers, and people who are employed by temp agencies. Small businesses will not grow over 50 employees. Twenty-somethings can’t be on their parents’ health insurance if said parents don’t have health insurance to stay on.
Even if the numbers of Obama voters and Romney voters were reversed, we would still have serious, serious problems as a country. That nearly sixty million voting adults think that we can just “ask the rich to pay a little bit more” is frightening. They should be nauseated at the thought of balancing trillion-dollar deficits by getting an extra few hundred million (tops) in revenue.
bridget (a44b32) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:35 amNo, Sammy, they get back since 1994, when Fidel called Clinton’s bluff.
narciso (ee31f1) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:36 amSEIU-ACORN-OFA
Only the name on the door changed, but the stench of voter fraud remains.
Michael Barone will have a field day sorting this all out for his next edition of The Almanac.
askeptic (b8ab92) — 11/12/2012 @ 8:58 amDana- thanks for the WSJ link. I feel much the same way Sarah Westwood does and (like you) I am not in her age demographic. Young voters may be misinformed and gullible but they are not all stupid. We must try to reach at least some of them on the issues that matter most and to do that be willing to budge on some other issues. Sarah has observed and written something worth seriously thinking about and considering.
I want to belong to and support a political party which espouses spending restraint and fiscal responsibility all the way from the top levels of government down to the individual family kitchen. One that values self sufficiency and industriousness, coupled with the freedom to live ones own life and to make one’s own decisions while on this earth as much as is possible while still maintaining a lawful, civil, and compassionate society.
Right now one party comes closer, but neither party really does that to my satisfaction. So I can see where Sarah is coming from.
Whether some here admit it or not, the younger voters are replacing older voters. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that, as might have occurred in some generations past, they will miraculously turn more conservative as they age. Since their votes from here on out will surely be impacting the rest of my life I would like to have at least some of them “on my side” on at least some issues that matter most deeply to me.
elissa (5e610d) — 11/12/2012 @ 9:03 amyou get your premium money back!
Yay! I got $12 back for 2011. I can feed the cats now.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/12/2012 @ 9:14 ambridget–
Rather I think we need to turn around and make everyone PAY for this “bounty.” Raise income taxes on everyone, not just the rich. Add user fees. Make it clear it isn’t “free” so people think “expensive stuff I don’t need” not “free stuff.”
Make up for the economic impact by removing a pile of regulations that hit small business disproportionately.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 11/12/2012 @ 9:18 amI have already heard the first CNN moron, talking head crowing about the “mandate” Obama won because of the electoral collage vote. They know no shame…
WarEagle82 (97b777) — 11/12/2012 @ 5:34 pmSame thing the Greeks did. Riot.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Aviary Enthusiast (8e2a3d) — 11/12/2012 @ 11:50 pmYa, funny how they despise the Electoral College as meaningless and an obstruction to democracy except when they can use it.
Smock Puppet, 10th Dan Snark Master and Aviary Enthusiast (8e2a3d) — 11/12/2012 @ 11:51 pmand that our country will never recover.
Emperor (d8736a) — 11/13/2012 @ 3:07 pmAwwww….
JD on Nov. 11 denies that the election was a drubbing. “Drubbing” was what Patterico called it. JD apparently keeps score by time of possession instead of points. As long as they count electoral college votes, the score was 332 to 206. Or did Al Gore win the 2000 election?
Reality (2cf4b4) — 11/13/2012 @ 7:03 pmReality, Obama was the first reelected second term President to lose votes compared to his first election. Almost 10 million of them. It wasn’t a drubbing. Your nick is illchosen.
SPQR (768505) — 11/13/2012 @ 7:09 pmI think trolls that use multiple names and IP addys are cute. Obama won by 2% of the vote. He won 4 swing states by less than 500,000 combined. He did a great job getting Dems to the polls, but drubbing is a gross overstatement. I don’t keep score by time of possession, never have, never will. We’re that the case, my favorite football teams would lose all the time. I was just disagreeing with your trolling.
The community based reality people crack me up.
JD (185efa) — 11/13/2012 @ 7:14 pmCommenting is trolling? This is the third time I’ve ever posted. Based on the epistemic closure and rude discourse I see, this will be the last. The commentary here isn’t very interesting. You guys are better at cheerleading each other than thinking. I’ll leave it to Patterico to explain to you why he chose the term drubbing.
Reality (2cf4b4) — 11/13/2012 @ 7:41 pmI love it when leftists yank out epistemic closure.
JD (185efa) — 11/13/2012 @ 7:50 pm