Not that anyone much cares any more…
…but in the interests of accuracy I’d like to point out that, as of this moment, Romney’s vote total is 60,697,341. That’s approximately three quarters of a million more votes than McCain got, and I don’t think Romney’s count is complete even now. So let’s retire the “two million missing McCain voters” meme.
I’ll say it again.
Had Romney won, there would have been protests, riots, and (very importantly) lawsuits.
But Romney lost, and all our side got was quiet acquiescence, plus a lunch date with the winner.
What’s wrong with this picture?
To me, that fact pales next to the final vote total. But thanks, neo, for keeping us up on that; it ^is^ important for some of us to have facts straight and to retire a meme that ain’t.
I keep hearing some very astute people talking about 2-3 million white working class voters who might have voted for Romney but who stayed home because Obama slandered Romney so effectively, while turning out his own base well enough. Is it accurate to say that? (I only ask because you’re so adept at wading through those numbers.)
roc scissors: Without the time to look it up at the moment, I can’t answer definitively, except to say that I’ve heard that said, too. But I seem to recall that closer analysis of the numbers in swing states indicate that the only place that may have been true was Ohio, and that most people think it was the GM bailout vs. Romney’s stance on GM that did it for Ohio.
roc scssrs, 1:31 pm —
The incumbent’s campaign did two things very well:
-1- get out the vote in the “ground game”, which the Romney side totally blew; and
-2- depress the Romney vote by mercilessly slandering Romney.
As to -1-, note that that includes ballot-stuffing votes, graveyard votes, illegal votes, and heaven knows what else. That side is very adept at getting their vote out [ahem].
roc scissors is addressing -2-. Given that there should’a’ been a lot more Romney votes out there, it sure strikes me as plausible. The incumbent’s side was very good at impressing a picture of Romney in the minds of the electorate, including the “white working class voters.”
It did not help that team Romney did ^nothing^ to counter the vicious propaganda all spring and summer. ^Nothing^.
And they never ^really^ went after the incumbent, with all His multiple and varied shortcomings (they were afraid of alienating the undecided/independent vote).
Sign me, “Disgusted”.
As my mother used to say:
Thank goodness for small favors….
M J R: they didn’t no nothing, but there’s no question they didn’t do enough. However, Romney had no access to general funds until after he was officially nominated late in the summer, so he was constrained by the time schedule. This is a big structural flaw that needs to be remedied somehow (don’t know how):
This is a built-in problem when you have an incumbent like Obama running against a party nominee who has had to deal with a long and contested primary season.
neo-neocon, 1:51 pm —
Point(s) taken.
But I wonder why the “R” party couldn’t get a little creative and come up with a way for delegates to nominate Romney, by internet or by registered mail or by ^something^, as soon as it was clear that Romney had won the prize.
These conventions are just dog-and-pony shows anyway, with the nominating ballots being a boring side show.
Y’know, hate to say it, but “creative” is not a quality I’d associate with the “R” party. I could much more readily see the “D” party doing something creative as soon as it might benefit them. (Hate to say that, too.)
And what about all those PACs on our side, who are not constrained as are the official campaigns? Didn’t they have at least a little money to advertise the incumbent for what he is (and is not)?
OR — and this can be significant — was I (M J R) blissfully unaware of the advertising, because I was living first in Maryland and now in California, neither of which were going to be contested and so were never going to be treated to campaign advertising in any event?
M J R: I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think there’s been a campaign before when the incumbent mounted such a sustained and early character assassination blitz on the other side’s nominee long before that nominee was even nominated. Of course, knowing Obama, it should have been expected. But I’m not sure how they could have prepared for it this year. And I think the rules are quite firm: it has to be an official nomination, a la the convention.
neo-neocon, 2:24 pm — Point(s) taken once again. Thanks for engaging me.
Point about it having to be an ^official^ nominating convention, especially. Point about the sliming and slander onslaught being unprecedented, still pondering. I guess I’m very accustomed to their guys dragging my guys through the sewage, but I’m not so clear about the point in a campaign at which their guys throw big-time money at the undecided and go for broke.
Anyway, thanks again.
M J R: As I said, I don’t have time to research it, but my very strong gut feeling (and my memory) tells me it’s not been done this early and this way before, at least not in my lifetime. Think of incumbents—in the past, they’ve felt they had to run a “positive” campaign and tout their record (this is certainly true of Republicans, who can’t count on the help of the MSM—au contraire). Previous incumbent Democrats in my lifetime have been Carter, Clinton, and LBJ. LBJ is the only one I can recall who ran an especially negative campaign (the daisy ad), and he waited for Goldwater to be nominated (see this). The ad aired once, although it became notorious. But as an ad campaign, it was nothing like the full court press of the Obama campaign this past summer.
Bushes numbers one and two were somewhat negative in their ads towards opponents Dukakis and Kerry (of course, Bush I was not an incumbent at the time, which makes a difference). But again, nothing like what Obama did to Romney, and I’m pretty sure it was not till the nominations had occurred (the Willie Horton ad, for example, occurred after Dukakis was nominated).
neo-neocon, 2:58 pm — and let both of us note for the record that the Willie Horton controversy was initiated not by a Bush, nor by a Republican, but by one Sen. Albert A. Gore (^D^-Tenn.), running against Dukakis in the Democrat primaries.
But this is always the case; that the final tally is hundreds of thousands more than what is officially counted on Election Day – so why the meme in the first place?
Or to ask this question another way – What was McCain’s vote total at midnight on Election Day?
‘I’m not sure how they could have prepared for it this year.’
The trick is for the nominee to turn the nomination down, thus making all the efforts of the incumbent wasted.
Of course this is only a thought experiment. They won’t do this for obvious reasons…but it would work.
We should stop trying to associate clearly emotional behavior with logical reasoning. Obama was more fashionable, so an infantile society voted him in, further analysis is merely commentary.
I posted this earlier:
1) The logical reasoning America we are trying to understand does not exist, at least not as a majority. I wonder if it ever did.
2) The divide is not between conservative and liberal ideals but between fashionable and unfashionable. Obama won because he was and is “cooler” than a stuffy white businessman; the oldest cliche in America. Ideology had little if anything to do with his victory.
3) The Republicans shouldn’t waste time trying to get their message across but rather they should try and recruit sexy young movie stars and news commentators. Appearance trumps substance, the medium is the message.
4) If the economy tanks the public will vote for a savior rather than a solution. The majority will not care about any hidden agenda.
Steve D: the meme was the result of jump-the-gun stupidity on the part of pundits. It should have been obvious on election eve that the vote totals would be rising for quite some time after (and some people said so, including moi, on November 8), but it seemed like an interesting item to discuss at the time. And once something like that sticks in people’s heads, it can be hard to eradicate. That’s why I keep posting these updates.
Obama was more fashionable, so an infantile society voted him in.
That really does seem to be the bottom line, at least from where I am. Every single Obama voter who has spoken to me since the election has offered reasons that range from appalling naivete (“with Obama there won’t be any more wars”) to nauseating adoration (“Obama’s such a cool dude”).
Bob from VA, your proposed solution of recruiting “sexy young movie stars” is all but impossible. By default, young Hollywood is overwhelmingly comprised of ignorant liberals. If any attractive young entertainer is actually a conservative, and wants to keep working, he or she will keep their politics well hidden. Breitbart knew that even while he railed against it.
I’m sorry that Bam is president, but at least Romney will fade away now and stop poisoning the conservative movement. Now if we can just get Boehner, Cantor and their ilk out of the way, we might actually get somewhere.
‘the meme was the result of jump-the-gun stupidity on the part of pundits.’
Agreed. I would like to point out that this meme demonstrates that rampant stupidity is no monopoly for either side of the political spectrum.
Hmm. Racism is real. Who knew.
Whites are being disenfranchised.
My poignant observation: me too.