Out on a red limb
One thing that is all but certain to emerge from this night will be a different political status for Texas. If Romney wins, Texans will be going off to Washington to join the government — you know, the one they love to hate. (Already there are rumors of KBH for Secretary of Transportation. Straus might If Obama wins, Texas will be completely isolated. You can forget the XL pipeline. We will get absolutely nothing from the Obama administration. Our politics has gone so far to the right that we may be the most extreme state in the country, rivaling South Carolina and Alabama. How did that happen? We are a big state, a rich state, a cosmopolitan state, and yet our politics is antedeluvial. Our big cities are as sophisticated as California’s. How did Texas politics fall into the hands of folks who see no use to government at all?
It’s 8:30 and the presidency is slipping away from Romney. Florida and Virginia are still up for grabs, but the networks have called Pennsylvania for Obama, Wisconsin for Obama, and Michigan for Obama.
One of the more interesting analyses of the evening made concerning the role in Romney’s problems played, however unwittingly, by our own Rick Perry. The point was made (during a Republican debate) that Romney “had no heart” because he opposed the Dream Act.) Romney reacted by taking a hard right turn on immigration, the key issue for Latinos, a stance he continued to take for the rest of the campaign Perry effectively cut Romney off from one of the biggest constituencies that was up for grabs. Obama won the Latino vote by 75-25 (something that was mentioned early in the evening).
The most telling comment of the evening was made by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. He said that the Republicans didn’t respond to the changing face of the American electorate. That has been true in Texas for many years, and it hasn’t made any noticeable difference in the state’s politics. But when you get outside of Texas and have to deal with America, how are Texas politicians like Rick Perry going to be able to craft a message for the increasingly diverse country that is the United States of America. As I said above, Texas is increasingly out of step from the rest of the country, and we will continue to be until the Texas Republican party accepts the demographic reality that is Texas — and America — today. Much as Perry would love to try, you can’t build a wall around Texas.
Romney was unable to consolidate his advantage from the first debate. He had no strategy for getting to 270. The Romney campaign couldn’t make up its mind which states they should contest and which states they should bypass. They went into Michigan and then went out. They went into Pennsylvania and then went out. They even tried Minnesota, which has been a Democratic state since Hubert Humphrey was in diapers. They couldn’t win Wisconsin, the home state of the vice-presidential nominee. Ryan turned out to be a weak choice; picking House members to be a heartbeat away from the presidency is a big risk. (Goldwater did it in 1964.)
Another odd event in this campaign was the tendency of Republicans to believe that the polls were biased against Mitt Romney. In particular, there was a weird Republican attack on Nate Silver’s 538 column in the New York Times. I was surprised that some of the smartest people I know believed Romney would win; one offered to bet me $100. There is a simple rule about polls: They are almost always right. You can’t make a living, or run a campaign, by being a poll denyer. Polls are not rocket science. You add up the responses and you get a result, and if everything else is kosher, that’s all you need to do. The the Republicans who emailed me about how Romney was going to win talked about enthusiasm, they talked about yard signs, they talked about being in Cleveland to rally for Romney, they talked about everything but the polls that said they were losing in the swing states. You can’t get rich betting against the House, and Nate Silver was the house in this election. The Obama campaign was just plain better, and had a better sense of strategy, than the Romney campaign.
Anonymous says:
If Romney had picked Rubio instead of Ryan, there might have been a different outcome.
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Anonymous Reply:
November 6th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
They would have still lost Ohio and Virginia.
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Blue Reply:
November 6th, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Nope.
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paulburka Reply:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Rubio would have been a better choice, but it would not have changed the outcome. Very few vice-presidential candidates have changed a presidential race. LBJ in 1960 was one.
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John Johnson says:
In Ohio? Ohio could care less who the veep candidate was.
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Anonymous says:
Fellow Republicans,
Follow Joe Straus, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, etc. to the middle, and you will return to power. Or you can move farther to the right with MQS and Perry, and stay with the sinking, stinking ship.
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John Johnson Reply:
November 6th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
Amen. The sooner people running for a Repub position realize that staying clear of the TLR and Sullivan, thereby remaining free to do their constituents’ bidding, the stouter they will be. Look at Geren.
I predict that you will observe a meeker, milder, more mainstream Abbott during the next several years.
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 6th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
ill call that bet.
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buy a clue Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:38 am
I hope you’re right but I doubt it. Remember, Abbott isn’t running for office in the rest of America, he’s running to be king of crazytown. He knows what side his bread is buttered on and that means more lawsuits about everything under the sun.
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Beerman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:27 am
Amen
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Anonymoose says:
If you idiots would have went with Huntsman, it would have been a real contest.
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BCinBCS Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Amen!
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Anonymous says:
I doubt any candidate could have beat Obama. The strength of incumbency is real, and hard to overcome. I tell you one thing, Rick Perry sure as hell couldn’t have beat him.
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 6th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
huntsman was the one the obama campaign was most worried about a year ago.
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Distinguished Gentleman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Thank goodness that we have the 22nd Amendment in the Federal Constitution (term limits) and won’t have to put up with Obama after January 20, 2017.
The wise concept of term limits should be expanded to ALL elective offices in this nation, from the Federal level right on down to the municipal level.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:55 am
That’s NEVER going to happen.
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
chances are good DG, that the economy will be booming in the 2016 election, and you could very well see another dem in the white house.
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S. Watkins says:
Hey Republicans,
I feel your pain; it must be hard to adjust to the new reality where people are judged by what they give to America, not by the fact that they are gay, female, minority, etc. I know that you still think that the fifties were the best decade in American history but try to live in the 21st century!!!!
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Anonymous says:
Four more years!
Upset that the Dems came up short in HDs 114, 107, and 105. Villalba may be a star in Austin for the GOP. Miklos came up just short. Maybe the dust up over his canvassers cost him a victory. He would have won his old 101 seat. Gallego has a small lead, and it looks like Wendy Davis will win.
What’s surprising to me is how bad Jeb Hensarling’s numbers are in the Dallas County portion of the 5th. He’s running even with a candidate who spent no money. He’ll still win heavily because of the rural counties, but it shows how the blue the precincts are getting in NE Dallas, Mesquite, and Garland. Sheets, and Burkett better not get too comfortable in their state house seats. Same with Harper Brown in Irving/GP.
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Pat Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Looking just at the presidential results, the shift in North Dallas since 2004 is really striking. Dallas is a Democratic county, to be sure, but its future is one as a bastion of Texas liberalism.
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Anonymous says:
I think it is embarrassing that we live in a country where both sides think abortion and gay marriage are the most important issues of the day. Sucks that these dominate the media, while actual issues like immigration and the economy get pushed aside.
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allmaya says:
A great quote from Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican US Senator from South Carolina:
“If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn’t conservative enough I’m going to go nuts,” said Graham. “We’re not losing 95 percent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we’re not being hard-ass enough.”
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John Johnson Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:13 am
Amen.
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Alan Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:18 am
If Republicans want to know why they lost, there are two statistics they need to look at:
1) Moderates voted for Obama by 15 points. Nearly half of Americans are self-identified moderates. Romney won independents, but that’s only because “independent” has become the term for Tea Partiers who think the GOP isn’t “hard-ass enough.”
2) Romney lost Hispanics by 44 points and he lost Asian-Americans by 47 points. Those two demographic groups are growing rapidly.
The GOP has offered absolutely nothing in their platform or made any kind of effort to appeal to any of those groups.
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JW Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:25 am
Makes sense. I’m a self described moderate and I coudl see nothing in the GOP platform that offered solutions, just more bumper sticker talk. I was really turned off by the Fox News/AM radio BS I endured and the out and out lying from Ryan and loonies like D’Souza. The GOP did nothing but attack the character of the President. They bored me to tears.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:54 am
Alan, can we expect Jeb Bush to run for President in 2016 IF Rubio stays in the Senate ?
I know Christie was nowhere to be found on election night, he obviously did NOT want Romney to win and he’s plotting a 2016 bid himself.
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Distinguished Gentleman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:35 am
allmaya, I disagree with Lindsey Graham in saying that a conservative message is a losing message.
What voters are looking for is a change in who delivers the message–the days of the anglo male controlling everything in American politics is over. The Republican Pary must emphasize its females and its non-anglos if it is to regain national prominence. The conservative message still resonates. Selecting New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez could have allowed Romney to eek out a narrow victory.
After all, unemployment INCREASED modestly just in the past month alone. The economy is still in terrible shape. Since Obama took office in January 2009, unemployment has not gone below where it was when he was first sworn into office on January 2009. Further, he has put us trillions and trillions of dollars deeper in debt than we were in January 2009. And yet Obama won anyway.
QUESTION: What president could expect to be re-elected when unemployment has inched upward, mere weeks prior to a national election? ANSWER: A non-white or a female one.
The GOP doesn’t have to change its basic core beliefs–just change the face of who presents the message.
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allmaya Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:26 am
DG, I certainly hope that the GOP will adopt your line of reasoning that it is the messenger, and not the message.
Do you actually believe that Mourdock and Akin were not clear enough in their messages?
My Gut-O-Meter says that most Americans are turned off by the GOP’s basic message of, “I’ve got mine – you get yours.” Not to mention, “The baby created by a rapist is God’s gift.”
And, last night’s results validate my Gut-O-Meter. Hopefully, the GOP will continue down this path that is advocated by you. It will mean more victories for my side in cases where the GOP should have prevailed.
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Dan C Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:51 am
From First Read: The white portion of the electorate dropped to 72%, and the president won just 39% of that vote. But he carried a whopping 93% of black voters (representing 13% of the electorate), 71% of Latinos (representing 10%), and also 73% of Asians (3%). What’s more, despite all the predictions that youth turnout would be down, voters 18-29 made up 19% of last night’s voting population — up from 18% four years ago — and President Obama took 60% from that group.
Lyndsay Graham is right. R’s ignore him and these numbers are their peril. I have three kids 19 – 21. They can’t even take seriously a party that denies global warming and evolution, wants to limit access to birth control and freaks out over gays. Same goes for their friends.
Alan Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:51 am
DG, both parties are making mistakes regarding Hispanic voters. Democrats risk taking them for granted if they assume they will always vote for them. But Republicans need to understand that most Hispanic voters do not view government the same way conservative middle-class whites do. They aren’t going to vote for someone who rails against “handouts and welfare” (dog-whistle words that don’t resonate with anyone but whites, particularly men) just because they have a Latino surname.
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are Hispanic Republicans who get elected by white people. They aren’t the kind of politicians who are going to make serious inroads with mainstream American Hispanics.
Susana Martinez is a far better model. She represents the aspirational, helping-hand kind of conservatism that made Hispanics flock to George W. Bush in the ’90s as governor and the last decade as president.
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Distinguished Gentleman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:22 am
Which is precisely why, Alan, the Republican Party must cultivate the few Susana Martinez’s that it presently has and must work dilligently to increase their numbers.
The core GOP message of entrepreneurship, limited government, work ethic, and basic morals for everyday living resonates with Hispanics–they just are turned off by strident immigrant-bashing.
BCinBCS Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
DG: “I disagree with Lindsey Graham in saying that a conservative message is a losing message. What voters are looking for is a change in who delivers the message–the days of the anglo male controlling everything in American politics is over.”
Uh…remember Herman Cain?
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Distinguished Gentleman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
To expand upon my earlier point, BCinBCS, any messenger who brings personal baggage to the delivery destination will damage the message that he or she is delivering.
Calculatin Coke says:
Still shocked evangelicals would vote for a Mormon. But two (Rubio, a former Mormon)?
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ghostofann says:
NOW do you cons believe Nate Silver?
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ghostofann says:
Where’s JBB? LOL!
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 5:22 am
I’m here. Whats apparent to me is dems knows if repubs want to win all they have to do is lose their principles.
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ANON Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:17 am
JBB, Blue Dog and Fiftycal……Oops!
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 9th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Anon, I’m a moderate to conservative TX Democrat.
Kenneth D. Franks Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:39 am
What’s apparent to me is some Republicans have been living in a bubble not believing it was not possible that the President could be reelected.
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allmaya Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Yes, JBB, Romney was certainly principled and consistent.
(Eyes rolling)
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Bell of the ball Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:41 am
JohnBernardBooks Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 5:22 am
I’m here. Whats apparent to me is dems knows if repubs want to win all they have to do is lose their principles.
Exactly, the principles of bigotry, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia. Keep heading down that road and see where it gets you.
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ghostofann Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:05 am
How are those sour grapes tasting this morning, JBB?
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
sour grapes, don’t you mean more deficit spending, higher unemployment and higher taxes?
It’s a democrat’s dream world.
Brown Bess says:
“You can’t make a living, or run a campaign, by being a poll denyer.” See Dick Morris.
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retrocon says:
The Obama “campaign” consisted of demonizing, mis-characterizing and mocking Romney. There was no vision for the future offered by Obama except to say “I need more time.” But more time to do what?
Yet this style of campaign carried the day and Paul marvels how “the Obama campaign was just plain better, and had a better sense of strategy, than the Romney campaign.”
That is a sad commentary on just over half of the electorate.
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ANON Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:28 am
Nice try. The demoniztion of Obama by the right: Muslim, birth certificate, D’Souza, Fox News, Limbaugh and other made the vote choice easy for thinking people not easily led. It was next to impossible to characterize Romney, he changed his stance or position daily. He wouldn’t show his taxes. He denied his helath care programs. Mock him? No one knew what the hell he stood for.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Arkansas Republicans have won both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, which means Arkansas Democrats are likely going to LOSE the governorship in 2014 alongwith the US Senate seat (held by Mark Pryor) and down-ballot statewide offices.
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ghostofann Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Wah!
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anoymouss Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Grow up, retrocon. It’s about w-i-n-n-i-n-g.
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retrocon Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Yeah, and it’s still a sad commentary on a good portion of the electorate.
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
if there was any demonizing, mis-characterizing and mocking, its been done by the GOP. the attempt to make the president look like a foreign boogeyman who wants to put the nation on welfare failed.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 9th, 2012 at 9:20 am
Romney was damanged from the long primary fight for the GOP nomination which dragged for a year and a half.
It also didn’t help that his stance against immigration reform alienated Latinos.
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retrocon says:
The electorate was nearly evenly divided — about half wanting a new direction and about half content with the status quo. Pres. Obama did not outline any path forward or any new initiatives he would like to see in a second term. There is no mandate for any new direction. There was no mandate for Republicans to compromise with “more of the same”.
If I were a Republican in Congress, I would start pushing through bill after bill designed to kickstart the economy — from energy production, putting the EPA back in a more proper role (ie. not an omnipotent overlord), trade agreements, streamlining the bloated federal government, reducing spending, tackling entitlements, etc., etc.
As the Obama economy drags along there may be more of a clamor give Republican economic ideas a try.
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RPG Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Bush Economy.
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retrocon Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Bush economy? Until when? It’s Bush’s up until it finally gets better?
By Obama’s timetable he said he’d have to have it done in three years, but when that didn’t materialize they had to cover themselves by floating a poll showing how people still blamed Bush.
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anon-p says:
I’ll step up first.
I was deeply skeptical about the 538 approach and the polls, which have since been proven to be correct in the Democratic leaning and turnout.
I never had issue with the math, just with the assumptions about the composition of the electorate. My own assumptions were wrong.
The falloff in enthusiasm was called correctly, I think. In my own Travis County, for instance, there was a huge dropoff between 2008 and 2012 turnout – 402k votes cast in 2008 versus 254k in 2012.
Preliminary national vote counts for the president also seem to support that.
However, the increase in vote for the Republican candidate was off as compared to the anecdotal enthusiasm. While the president lost support, no doubt, it did not cause a surge in support for Romney.
Several of us naysayers thought it would happen, and it didn’t happen.
The full post-mortem has yet to be conducted, but the broad outlines aren’t going to change – a 2010 style drubbing was not in the cards for 2012. We’re back to deep partisan divide, which unfortunately, means the statesmen are probably going to take a backseat to the campaigns and consultants due to the tight margins it will take to win close elections.
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Bodhisattva Reply:
November 10th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Your numbers are wrong, at least as regards Travis County. Almost 390,000 ballots cast this year, bot 254,000 as you suggested. A drop-off from 2008′s 402,000, but not as significant as you suggest.
http://www.traviscountyclerk.org/eclerk/content/images/election_results/2012.11.06/Run08/20121106tccume.pdf
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Happy says:
Go Senator Davis for her integrity, standing up for what is right, having courage, and creating a ground game that was second to none!
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Tom Barry says:
Here’s an interesting take on why pundits are so often wrong:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ziegler/romney-loss-conservative-media_b_2084911.html
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Tom says:
As Bill Clinton correctly noted, “The American voters almost always get it right.”
This was an election that had severe disadvantages for the incumbent president, and yet he was still able to get his voters to the polls.
And think about this. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who had his campaign headquarters in Massachusetts,lost his home state in a landslide.
Paul Ryan could not deliver Wisconsin and John Boehner’s home state of Ohio went for Obama.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:52 am
Tom, Romney should have picked either Portman or Rubio as VP, and had he done that we would have Pres-Elect Romney right now.
I also think Romney’s lack of response to Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital during the summer didn’t help his cause either because his campaign did NOTHING to respond to the attacks Obama was doing.
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anoymouss Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Has anyone met a voter who based her or his decision on the VP?! Anyone…ever?!
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paulburka Reply:
November 11th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Hundreds of thousands of voters shied away from John McCain after he picked Sarah Palin for vice-president. One of them was me.
JW says:
Tom: these home states knew the candidates well. I’m wonderign if the GOP realizes how badly they are losing the moderate voter. Far right talk is so bad, so biased, so inflammatory and attacking. Conservatives are so stuck in ideology that they cannot work with anyone on anything. Their social beliefs are medieval, outrageous talk offensive. I voted Obama because I did not want to affirm what conservative voters do.
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truth says:
The conservative media is killing the Republican Party.
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anaughtymouse says:
Hmmm……
September 12th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
JohnBernardBooks says:
Democrats want to talk about anything except the state of the economy, jobs and Obama’s poor foreign policy. I don’t blame them. The landslide is coming in Nov.
September 13th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
JohnBernardBooks says:
dems implode at DNC convention when voting No to God 3 times….
The US’s foreign diplomacy is in total disarray
President Obama’s presidency exploded on 9/12/12
“Egypt is neither an ally or an enemy”?!?
Pres Clinton(Bill not Hillary) nailed it when he said this guy is an amateur.
Total landslide in Nov, 60/40 minimum.
September 14th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
JohnBernardBooks says:
The tidal wave in November will sweep Pres Obama out of office and the few loons like Robert Morrow with him.
October 17th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
JohnBernardBooks says:
It all comes down to who is “fit to serve”. It takes more than an empty suit to lead.
President Obama is not and Romney is.
This election is over Romney won.
October 18th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
JohnBernardBooks says:
Romney gets 320 electoral votes
turn out the lights….
October 29th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Blue Dogs says:
Burka, you are a BIASED LIBERAL idiot.
October 29th, 2012 at 11:30 am
Blue Dogs says:
Nate Silver is an IDIOT and needs to grow some hair because he’s embarrassingly balding.
I’m relying on Fox News and Rasmussen polls and plus I voted early for Romney last week.
Romney is still leading in the national and battleground swing state polls and he will be the 45th President on Nov. 6th.
Deal with it FATBOY.
October 30th, 2012 at 6:35 am
JohnBernardBooks says:
President Obama is in full retreat.
Romney gets 320 electoral votes.
October 31st, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Anonymous says:
Haven’t checked in here for a few months, but see it’s still the same collections of lefty cheerleaders for Obama and the libs. You libs are gonna be disappointed on Tuesday. These polls like Quinnipiac, Reuters, etc. are all giving Obama small leads in swing states based on him turning out his voters like he did in 2008. He isn’t anywhere close to that. Romney has done what he had to do– show himself as a reasonable acceptable alternative to the disastrous, in over his head Obama. Romney wins and it won’t be that close.
1. JohnBernardBooks Reply:
November 4th, 2012 at 10:56 am
obviously you haven’t read “the Amateur” by Klein
The democrats are angry by the hoax the Chicago way foisted off on them in the name of “The Amateur”.
There’s a backlash coming Tuesday not just from the republicans but by democrats who got fooled.
I cannot wait this is so much better than Christmas.
Yeah thats right dems I still believe in Santa because he’s on his way.
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RPG Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 8:55 am
JBB and Fiftycal are the village idiots. Waste of keystrokes to point out their BS.
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Anonnymoose Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:25 am
@anaughtymouse — best to not feed the trolls around here.
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JohnBernardBooks Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
someone who actually keeps another’s posts, need a life? hahaha!
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
dewhurst, 6-8 points.
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donuthin says:
I’m not too surprised that the Republicans were skeptical of the polls. After all, as a group they are skeptical of science anytime if contradicts their what they already believe. It is especially true here in Texas, and especially with the Gov. He is much more interested in creationism than in solid biological science.
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Bill says:
Paul, what do the losses in the senate mean for John Cornyn?
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Big Enos Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:42 am
I was wondering that myself, but it would be hard to find fault in Cornyn’s efforts at the NRSC this cycle. He did everything he could, but the primary voters in the states picked some terrible candidates, like Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, George Allen, and Connie Mack.
Blame for not having Senate controls rests squarely on the shoulders of the Tea Party, who gave us candidates like Mourdock, Angle, Ken Buck, and Christine O’Donnell.
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paulburka Reply:
November 11th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Cornyn is on track to be minority leader.
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Blue Dogs says:
Distinguished Gentlemen, if Perry was the GOP nominee this year for President, do you think he would have beaten Obama or would Obama have blown him out by 20 points ?
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Bill Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:58 am
You have to ask?
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BCinBCS Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Oh Bill, your killing me!
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Blue Dogs' Wife Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:25 am
I can’t think of any state that Romney won that wouldn’t have been carried by Perry, at least pending a final call on Florida. Popular vote would be different.
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Distinguished Gentleman Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Not at all, Blue Dogs. If you read anything that I have ever written about Rick Perry you should know by now that I do not hold him in high esteem.
I think that the best GOP candidate combination this year against Obama and Biden would have been Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty and New Mexico’s Susana Martinez.
A Pawlenty-Martinez ticket in 2012 would have become a Pawlenty-Martinez administration on January 20, 2013.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:25 am
Christie would have given Obama a run for his money, but Jeb Bush was WISE to stay out because had he been the GOP nominee, Obama would have bashed him for his brother’s mess.
I’m expecting Jeb to run in 2016 IF Rubio doesn’t run and stays put in the Senate.
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Vernon says:
I think one takeaway for the GOP should be that facts matter. It’s important for our actions be guided by reality. Not reality as we would like it to be; but rather the unvarnished, often unwelcome, reality.
One thing that the GOP does very well is “going big and going for it.” They’re comfortable with taking risks and committing to a decision. Democrats could take cue. Except the GOP took it too far.
Lately that frantic drive to achieve through sheer force of will has made the GOP deaf to anything that doesn’t conform to the plan. And dissension isn’t just ignored; it’s denounced as heresy.
Ignoring facts and demographics to preserve strict ideology cost the GOP what could have been a handily won presidency.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
What does an Obama win mean? Can you say higher taxes? I know it’s a democrat’s wet dream.
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Jerry Only Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
a growing economy, a shrinking deficit, universal health care, and immigration reform.
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ghostofann says:
JBB, when have you ever been right about anything?
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rw says:
A Republican candidate for President needs to be a fiscal conservative but a social liberal, in other words, more of a Ron Paul libertarian. We will surely need a fiscal conservative in 2016. Perry, obviously, has no future on a national level because he is a social conservative.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 9th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Social conservative helps you win statewide office at the state level, but the national level is complicated because the liberal media will bash you every turn.
In 2016, there will be Obama Fatigue after 8 years and folks will turn to the GOPers to clean house at all levels.
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buy a clue says:
wow, the delusion never ends with you people does it?
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José Reply:
November 9th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
The housecleaning in 2016 will be every bit as thorough as the Romney landslide that Karl Rove was predicting a few days ago.
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Blue Dogs Reply:
November 12th, 2012 at 11:23 am
I’m a moderate to conservative Democrat who votes for Republicans in national and statewide elections and Dems for city and county offices.
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