The Reason Romney Lost
Republicans really put forth what they believed was their maximum effort in good faith but the party is so hopelessly divided, despite every effort to appear unified, that it has become difficult if not nearly impossible to conclude that it would not be best for it to split up. There is precedent for that. In the 1840s and '50s The Whig Party was in a similar position to that of the GOP now. On matters of internal growth and Western expansion, which had fueled the party for a long time, there was general agreement, but the issue of slavery had come to dominate everything. The party leader was Henry Clay of Kentucky, known as the 'great compromiser'. He was a skillful politician and experienced negotiator, but at the end of the day he could not hold the party together. Abraham Lincoln had been a loyal Whig but could not compromise with pro-slavery interests or with those who were neutral on letting the states decide the issues. So they had nowhere to go and Lincoln, together with others, formed the Republican Party.
This year, 2012, Conservatives really did not want Romney as their candidate. As a conservative I myself didn't want him. I wanted Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum or even Rick Perry from Texas. But not Romney. He is a good man with a lot of ability but he could never have his heart the effort to campaign as a conservative. The high point was the first debate. The campaign went down hill from there as Romney then tried to stake out a centrist position; 'hands across the aisle' and all that. Conservatives gagged, but they had gone along once the race for the nomination had been decided in favor of Romney. The determination to defeat Obama trumped everything else. What happened at the end was that Hurricane Sandy diverted the nation's attention from the race for about five days. When Romney returned he just couldn't put up the front any more. The fire was gone and he decided to let the clock run out, hoping that he would would win by lying low, avoiding controversy and watching the clock tick the hours away.
Even then he might have pulled it off, but then it all fell in when the Republican keynote speaker, Governor Chris Christie of Jersey embraced Obama and seemed to endorse his candidacy. He did not, but you had to listen very closely to what he said to conclude that. Then the voters, tired of the race, tired of wind and floods, tired of trying to tough it out with a sick economy, decided that maybe Obama wasn't the indecisive non-leader that they had been told and nearly believed. It only required a slight shift of votes, just a few more Republicans staying home and a few more fence sitters voting for Obama, and it all fell in --- not by much, but enough.
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