As the national vote total began to solidify last night, one question on the minds of Republicans was: Where are the missing voters? Last night it looked like Mitt Romney had received something like 10 to 15 percent fewer votes than John McCain had in 2008, even though his percentage of the overall vote was at least two points higher. What did this mean? Where did the voters go? They didn’t go to Barack Obama, because exit polls suggested he had basically turned out the same demographic support he had four years ago. So where are they? Did this suggest a significant element of the GOP base had stayed home? Perhaps evangelical voters quietly refusing to cast a ballot for a Mormon? Populist voters disgusted by the 47 percent tape?
As I write, Mitt Romney has 57.4 million votes. John McCain ended up with 59.9 million. It’s a little noticed fact that in two weeks following every presidential election, votes continue to be reported…by the millions. As I recall, Barack Obama got something like four million more votes in the weeks after election day, while John McCain got two or three million. It’s likely that by Thanksgiving, the final vote tally will show Romney very close to or even slightly exceeding McCain’s total.
So there are probably no missing voters. The idea offers a certain degree of cold comfort for conservatives and Republicans, because it would suggest the problem was with Romney’s candidacy in particular and not with the movement or the party. But it’s false, and they will not be spared the reckoning about the party’s future.
So about 6 million 2008 Obama voters didn't vote for him again? What does that mean for his "mandate"?
Was it a weakness of the GOP, or the underestimated strength of Obama? Would another Democrat presiding over the same economy and world situation have prevailed? (A variation of the question is: would the MSM have protected another Democrat as completely as they protected Obama?)
Mitt tried to channel Reagan for the last month of the campaign. Looking at his record, one can't assume that was really in the cards at all. n nThe election wasn't about candidate persuasiveness or personality. No candidate got any Dems to go Rep or vice versa in any significant numbers. So it was all about turnout. It was about Obama keeping his 2008 turnout from dropping any more than it did (he got ~10 million fewer votes yesterday than last time). n nI heard last night from someone living in East New York (Brooklyn; overwhelmingly African-American) that she had to wait four hours to vote yesterday. They were not about to have their guy humiliated if they could help it.
The Republicans showed their parochialism. With narrow mind u get narrow results or failure. nThe rt did not come to vote clear, simple and obvious.
High unemployment and a weak economy are usually fatal for a sitting president. Oddly this current situation drove the unemployed and under -employed into the sheltering arms of Obama and his food stamps and perpetual unemployment insurance. Somewhere, sometime this has all got to be paid for. It won't be pretty.
Romney's campaign was timid, weak, and defensive ("please don't hate me, I'm really a nice guy"…), and in the end his "play it safe" strategy failed.