So many post-mortems, so little time.
There was no shortage of theories — sometimes contradictory — from inside and outside party in the first hours after the 2012 elections.
But
this one has to rise above the rest of them:
Boston — A Romney adviser partly blames last night’s defeat on a weak message. “Turnout was the big problem, since we didn’t get all of McCain’s voters to the polls, but we really should have been talking more about Benghazi and Obamacare,” an adviser says, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Those are major issues and Romney rarely mentioned them in the final days.”
Yes, yes! It was the messaging! You did not talk about Benghazi enough. It's a major issue! Notice how
no one is talking about it at all anymore now that its political value is absolutely
nil?
As long as Republicans remain so clueless about their own cluelessness they are destined to wander in the desert for at least forty years.
And this has a heaping helping of schadenfruede:
Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, the adviser adds, is persona non grata in Romney’s inner circle. “He went out of his way to embrace the president during the final week of the campaign,” the adviser says. “It wasn’t necessary and it hurt us. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Chris Christie undermined the Republican message.”
Sure. Akin and Mourdouck, standard bearers of the true Republican message, undermined the message. OK.
The article concludes by saying that Mitt Romney's future is unknown. He may play some peripheral role in politics. He will definitely go back to his family (where he can resume his buffet line jumping habits to his heart's content). The 'adviser' says 'it will take some time to figure out'. Notice the utter abscence of any thought as to what Mitt Romney could now do, being denied the Presidency, as an alternate way to 'help this country' without being President. That was his supposed reason that he wanted to be President, because the 'kentry' was in such poor shape and it needed his help. This man is likely a billionaire, and nary a thought as to how he can retire to private life and use his millions to help, which is actually a more effective way to accomplish good things (just ask Bill Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative). So telling, (not that there was every any doubt) of Romney's single-minded selfish reasons for wanting the Presidency.
Now, after nominating this loser of a candidate who jumped back and forth between severe conservatism and moderate mittness, their asses were handed to them on a plate, and the GOP is in utter disarray. The civil war is in full swing. Tea Party extremists are calling for a takeover of the Republican party. Go ahead! Do it! Unbeknownst to them, Romney's only chance at victory was when he started to moderate to the center.
They vowed to wage a war to put the Tea Party in charge of the Republican Party by the time it nominates its next presidential candidate.
“The battle to take over the Republican Party begins today and the failed Republican leadership should resign,” said Richard Viguerie, a top activist and chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
He said the lesson on Romney’s loss to President Obama on Tuesday is that the GOP must “never again” nominate a “a big government established conservative for president.”
Meanwhile, Hermain Cain, that well-known powerful Republican political player, is calling for the formation of a
third party.
Steve Schmidt, a top Republican strategist who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, invoked the term on MSNBC this morning. “When I talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, what I mean is, it’s time for Republican elected leaders to stand up and to repudiate this nonsense [of the extreme right wing], and to repudiate it directly,” he said.
But on the other side of the fight, Herman Cain, the former presidential candidate who still has a robust following via his popular talk radio program and speaking tours, today suggested the most clear step to open civil war: secession. Appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program this afternoon, Cain called for a large faction of Republican Party leaders to desert the party and form a third, more conservative party.
“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country.
The Republican party signed a Faustian pact when they embraced the rightwing nutjobs into their coalition. The ones who are now 'undermining' their message. Now reap what ye have sown.