The story behind Mitt RomneyÂ’s loss in the presidential campaign to President Obama

Boston.com ^ | December 23, 2012 | Michael Kranish

[SamAdams76]

It was two weeks before Election Day when Mitt Romney's political director signed a memo that all but ridiculed the notion that the Republican presidential nominee, with his better ground game could lose the key state of Ohio or the election. The race is “unmistakably moving in Mitt Romney's direction, the memo said. But the claims proved wildly off the mark, a fact embarrassingly underscored when the high-tech voter turnout system that Romney himself called “state of the art” crashed at the worst moment, on Election Day.

To this day, Romney’s aides wonder how it all went so wrong...

[SamAdams76]

This is an old article about the campaign of 2012. Still brings back painful memories but makes for an instructive read today on how Mitt Romney blew the election that was very winnable.

One takeaway from this article is that Mitt Romney was a reluctant candidate in 2012. After his 2008 primary loss, he did not have the fire in the belly for another run. But the GOPe establishment insisted he was the guy.

I spent some time today looking at Mitt Romney rallies from this time in 2012. And I use the term "rally" rather loosely as Mitt's campaign appearances were dull and lifeless. He would only speak for maybe 20 minutes tops and would have the same tired stump speech ridden with cliches and empty platitudes.

Golden opportunity to prevent a second Obama term was squandered and this sad picture of Mitt Romney pumping his own gas shortly afterwards pretty much sums it all up. The man was and is a pathetic loser.

In Trump, we have the most electrifying nominee since Ronald Reagan himself. A man who is accustomed to winning and one who takes no prisoners. I am confident that his general election campaign will not be repeating the mistakes of four years ago.

[xzins]

Nothing went wrong.

They weren’t really ahead.

Numbers were sliced and diced by those wanting him to defeat Obama, myself included, but the truth is that we should have looked at Romney’s lousy campaign after Benghazi.

For all practical purposes, Romney threw the race.

[relictele]

Hopefully the ‘ground game’ myth beloved by political hacks and media dopes has been put to a merciful death by the Trump candidacy.

They blamed ‘ground game’ for a loss in Iowa with its arcane, archaic caucus system but after Trump’s tour de force you don’t hear much about it these days.

A ground game is no substitute for a backbone and a willingness to call leftists and control freaks for what they are. Trump has done just this and is riding a wave.

Romney and McCain refused flatly to do so and earned their reward for cowardice.

[Bogey78O]

Romney lost for the same reason why most Republicans lose. They hire advisors and managers who are just doing a job and don’t actually agree with their boss. As a result they accepted nearly everything phrased in a way to support the Democrat.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Even Obola was surprised when he won.

He didn’t think they had sufficient election fraud going on, but it turned out to be enough.

[TexasGator]

“He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to . . . run,”

[Zathras]

Its easy to figure out if you are smarter than Mitt. (and that isn’t hard)
When your ground game is based on ONE targeted State, it is easy for the opposition to throw all its weight into this one State.

Bush did the same thing with FL and barely won.
The RATS used the 2000 roadmap but with more $$$
Mittens didn’t stand a chance.

When you put MI, NH, NV, PA, OH, IA and FL all in play like Trump has done, it makes the RAT ground game much more difficult and expensive.

[Salamander]

"Name's Ash, Housewares"

[rockrr]

Bruce would be soooo offended ;’}

[mjp]

“He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to . . . run,”

no wonder he was a loser

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

White working and middle-class voters stayed home because Romney and the GOPe cared more about the illegal Hispanic vote than about the people who make this country run.

[Diogenesis]

Bishop ROmney was into this for 1 (one) reason.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ he would steal
from donors as the RAT left them high and dry.

As the RAT drove off in the distance, after
his ultralow energy give-a-way to Obama,
Romney screamed, “Let them eat RomneyCARE”.

[castlegreyskull]

I actually think Romney would have been a better than average president, certainly better than this thing we have now.

[TomGuy]

To this day, Romney’s aides wonder how it all went so wrong...

It isn't even rocket science. The end started when Obama yelled out, "Get the transcript, Candy."

From that point in the debate onward, Romney cowered.

In the 3rd debate, the one on foreign policy, Romney basically phoned it in. He never once mentioned Benghazi and the 4 Americans who where killed there.

Romney's decline continued. If he didn't have backbone in the debates, it likely wouldn't have backbone if he were in the Oval Office.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The way I remember it, Mittens went MIA during the final 2 or 3 weeks of the campaign. That convinced me that he had no intention of winning against the Kenyan.

[The_Media_never_lie]

He would not confront Obolo on his terrible record, missing bio, and lack of help for minorities. Why did we ever think Mitt might have a chance?

[Aria]

What’s wrong with pumping your own gas?

I think he lost because he just was’t inspiring and Obama is really good at getting out the gimmedat vote - and I include gimmedats at all income levels.

[SamAdams76]

Here's another excerpt:

...one of the highest priorities was a Facebook app that would enable the Romney campaign to locate voters who otherwise could not be found by telephone. By some estimates, half of younger voters do not have a landline or cannot be reached by cellphone. Three weeks before Election Day, the app was unveiled by the campaign and downloaded by 40,000 Romney supporters...There was only one problem. Months earlier, Obama’s campaign had developed a similar app, which had been downloaded by 1 million people.

The Republicans were once again caught flat-footed on social media (which propelled Obama in 2008).

This time around, Trump seems to have a much better handle on the power of social media than any other candidate. HIs 8.5 million Twitter followers (and growing) gives him access to a much wider audience than any of the major networks. I think even the New York Times barely reaches a million subscribers.

I see many Freepers deriding Trump for his "juvenile" use of Twitter but it seems to be working for Trump. Just this morning, Trump kicked out a Tweet on how Bill Kristol is utterly clueless and wondering why the Sunday morning shows even put him on their panels because he's been wrong about everything for two years. I thought that was hilarious and this must be driving the Beltway pundits absolutely bonkers.

[odawg]

I only glanced at the long article because I do not want to be reminded, but if he didn’t mention the third debate, it was a waste of time.

[SamAdams76]

There's nothing wrong with pumping your own gas - I pump my own gas too, when I'm not in New Jersey.

But when you were supposed to be president of the United States, then that's pretty pathetic.