Thank you for all of your interesting responses to my "Why Romney Lost" post. As I was compiling the quotes, I thought I had it all figured out. I still believe that Romney lost due to millions of Republicans failing to show up to the polls, but my theory as to why they stayed home has evolved over the past 24 hours.
From the time I had first read that Romney-Ryan had actually received fewer votes than McCain-Palin, my knee-jerk reaction was that millions of conservatives stayed home due to the belief that Romney is a flip-flopping RINO, because....well, he is. Although a few voters may cite this as the reason they didn't vote, I no longer believe this to be the reason Romney lost the election.
There is no love lost for Obama among highly informed conservatives. They know the potential ramifications of a second term. I have a difficult time believing that a significant number of this group of voters would pass at the chance to remove him from office. We have seen plenty of evidence of this with very vocal critics of Romney lining up to support the GOP ticket. I know several people, personally, who have never warmed to Romney, yet they all showed up to the polls to vote for him last Tuesday.
I believe the focus should be on the low-information individuals in the party. These are historically unreliable voters. They get their news from the major networks and word of mouth. They are more likely to be influenced by the fallout from Romney's "47%" comments, news about the mansion he's building in California (complete with a car elevator), and his perceived aloof attitude towards "ordinary" folks like you and me. I believe this group makes up the majority of the 3-5 million McCain-Palin voters who stayed home last week.
An argument can be made that Romney was repeatedly mischaracterized by Team Obama and the biased mainstream media. To a certain extent, that's true, but isn't it the job of the candidate to break through, and get their message out?
In conclusion, Romney did not lose due to demographics. Romney did not lose because of Todd Akin. Romney did not lose because of Rush Limbaugh. Romney did not lose because he's a "RINO." And Romney did not lose because people want free birth control or "gifts," as Romney claims. The bottom line is that Romney did not provide a compelling enough argument for his candidacy to get the low-information Republicans to the polls.
