Romney underperforming McCain overall tells me that there is something we are missing. All I can think of is the Mormon thing. Romney ran more to the right than most expected after he won the nomination, but a lot of the Bush 2004 voters STILL stayed home, along with some of the MCCAIN voters...and Obama didn’t get them.
Romney ran a campaign TEN TIMES better than McCain, and McCain is hardly any more conservative than Romney.....I am struggling to explain that one. All I can come up with is the Mormon thing. Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin...lower totals in North Carolina..Virginia...
A decent sized section of Protestants really do view the Mormons as a cult. I just thought the economy and the anti Obama view would outweigh that. Maybe it didn’t?
we’re missing several things including:
1) balls on those who run the GOP
2) results and ideas from the GOP lead congress...
they go hand in hand... the GOP lost a lot of good congressmen and women yesterday in part as they were seen as obstructionists who offered little in the way of alternatives...they were blamed for everything yet the GOPe did not have the courage to point the finger at obama and the rats...
Maybe you are on to something with the Mormon thing. I view them as a cult (albeit a pretty benign one), but I still voted for him. Maybe a lot of people stayed home because of it.
The margin was small enough that this Mormon factor could be a substantial part of the explanation for the margin in this election, but I’m guessing not the total vote decline since 2008.