Tag: Campaign 2012
RomneyBot Meltdown: Said to Be ‘Shellshocked’ By Loss
On “Morning Joe” today, David Frum, the former speechwriter for George W. Bush, was asked to describe the campaign message of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party in the campaign this year:
FRUM: Mitt Romney’s message is, I am going to take away Medicare from everybody under 55. I’m going to cut Medicaid for everybody by about a third. And I’m going to do that in order to finance a giant tax cut for me and my friends. And the reason I’m doing that is because half the country contributes nothing to our national endeavor. That’s his message.
The biggest surprise is that Romney himself is said to have been “shellshocked” when he learned that voters rejected his message on Election Night:
Karl Rove Was a Bigger Loser Than Mitt Romney on Election Day
1%
The return on investment (ROI) from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads super PAC in the 2012 elections, since almost every candidate for which the group ran ads lost. Rove’s Crossroads GPS, which is not required to disclose its donors, had a 13% ROI. Together, the two groups spent about $176 million, mostly on TV ads. By contrast, Priorities USA Action, a Democratic super PAC, had a 100% ROI, since it put its $67 million behind Pres. Obama. Majority PAC, which supported Democratic Senate candidates, produced a 70% ROI, and House Majority PAC, a 44% ROI.
Mitt Who? Republicans Hurry to Be Post-Romney
Before dawn broke in my neighborhood, the Romney/Ryan yard signs disappeared from lawns. The zzzppptt! of Romney/Ryan bumper stickers being torn off like bandaids, in grim, lip-pursed yanks, might be what woke me up this morning.
Almost as if they had never existed, the traces of Romney’s support were gone. As soon as it became evident that Pres. Obama had easily held off his shape-shifting opponent, the Romney brand was in the clearance bin.
The main lesson is one that Democrats learned in 2004, when hating George W. Bush wasn’t enough to put Generic Democratic Challenger in the White House
For the vast majority of Romney’s base, his support was more about what he wasn’t than what he was. He wasn’t, of course, Barack Obama. Beyond that, he was Generic Republican Challenger, and he stirred as much passion in his followers, if they could be called that, as a can of Ensure. Yes, he had all the ingredients they needed but they’d really rather have had them in a slice of pizza.
Sonny Bono’s Widow and Her Current Congressman Husband Were Both Defeated Yesterday – an Era Ends in Congress
Yesterday Rep. Connie Mack, the Republican congressman and husband of Sonny Bono’s widow, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., lost his race to unseat Florida’s Democratic senator, Sen. Bill Nelson. Today we learn that Mrs. Bono Mack has lost her race for reelection to the House:
Raul Ruiz, a Democratic emergency room doctor, eked out a victory over Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) in the race for the 36th Congressional District seat in the Coachella Valley.
The often-caustic political slugfest is the first defeat for Bono Mack in her 14-year political career, which began when she was elected to replace her husband, singer Sonny Bono, in Congress after his death in a skiing accident…
Ruiz assailed Bono Mack for supporting the budget plan of GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Ruiz said the plan would decimate Medicare.
The political parties and outside groups spent more than $3.3 million in the race
Since Rep. Mack gave up his seat to run for the Senate, this means that next year, neither Mack nor Bono Mack will be returning to Congress.
Obama Tweet Breaks Record
636,558
Number of retweets, setting a Twitter record, for a post by Pres. Obama that said, “Four more years” with a Twitpic of him and First Lady Michelle Obama embracing.
Two Vile Tea Partyists, Allen West and Joe Walsh, Defeated – But a Third, Michele Bachmann Clings to Power
[The] House will remain under control of Republicans, who also added a seat, increasing the majority they won in 2010.
Republicans picked up two House seats in North Carolina and beat a Democrat in Kentucky, as they looked to widen their advantage.
Analysts watched to see if conservative Tea Party candidates continue to gain stature in this election, or if disillusionment among voters over gridlock in Congress takes its toll on their movement. Tea Party stars such as Allen West, of Florida, and Joe Walsh, of Illinois, were defeated and Michele Bachmann of Minnesota remained locked in a tight race.
Reports this morning indicate that Bachmann has won reelection.
Senate Adds Record Number of Women
Voters responded to the Republicans’ War on Women by sending more troops into the field. Women elected to the U.S. Senate yesterday include senators-elect Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska.
Sen.-elect Baldwin will be the first openly gay U.S. senator, and Sen.-elect Hirono will be the first Japanese native to serve in the upper body.
If we’ve got the count right, that means there will be 20 women in the Senate in 113th Congress. Technically, that still leaves a deficit of at least 31 women members in the world’s most exclusive club, but it is progress nonetheless.
Gay Civil Rights Pass Ballot Test for the First Time – Marriage Equality Passes in Maine and Maryland
Leaving aside the propriety of Americans voting on whether to protect the civil rights of other Americans, here is some good news on marriage equality:
In a historic turnaround, the ballot box is showing America’s shifting attitudes about same-sex marriage. After gay marriage rights died at the polls dozens of times in the past, on Tuesday they passed in at least two states.
Rarely do popular votes reflect such dramatic social changes…
But the win was hard fought and the margin of victory was small.
“We’ve lost at the ballot box 32 times,” said Paul Guequierre of Human Rights Campaign. “History was made tonight” …
“It’s hard to overstate the national significance of this vote,” Marc Solomon, campaign director at Freedom to Marry, said of the Maine referendum.
In Maryland, where just 51.9% of voters approved gay marriage rights, “It was a little bit pins and needles,” said Human Rights Campaign’s Kevin Nix. “It was going to be a close call all along.”
