Romneyworld reckoning begins: GOP ‘Shock at scale of loss to Obama.’ Asks what’s this scary thing called math and reality?
Romneyworld reckoning begins
By JAMES HOHMANN and ANNA PALMER | 11/7/12 9:44 PM EST
BOSTON — Advisers to Mitt Romney insisted Wednesday that they were surprised by the scale of their loss to President Barack Obama, while big-time GOP donors griped about the campaign’s unflinching confidence in the final stretch.
As results began to stream in Tuesday night, prominent Romney supporters in Boston tried to stay positive, reassuring themselves that there was still a path to the White House. But dejection quickly turned to anger a day after an Electoral College rout that shocked many who had heard self-assured projections about voter enthusiasm and turnout in private conference calls and meetings in the campaign’s final stretch.
‘They ran a 20th century campaign in the 21st century,’ said one Romney bundler, frustrated that the campaign made assumptions about the youth vote and voter intensity that didn’t pan out. ‘The anger is that they were entrusted to do certain things. It’s not like they were paid a $5,000 retainer to get a few dozen articles in an inside-the-Beltway paper. This is the major leagues.’
Another Republican outside the Romney campaign but privy to its thinking described the defeat as a complete pummeling, with Senate losses adding salt to the wound.Romney supporters point to a series of brash statements made by advisers that seem out of touch with reality in retrospect. Inside the Beltway, Republicans trained their fire on senior Romney advisers like Ed Gillespie and political director Rich Beeson for appearances on last weekend’s Sunday shows. Gillespie said the electoral map was expanding, and Beeson predicted a 300 electoral vote win for Romney.
…snip… “I think Republicans are split right now between confused and shocked, and also I think they are wondering did the Romney campaign have numbers we didn’t have.”
…snip… In starker terms, the source questioned: “Was last week a head fake, or were they just not that smart?”
…snip… “We didn’t think they’d turn out more of their base vote than they did in 2008, but they smoked us,” said one Romney operative. “It’s unbelievable that that they turned out more from the African-American community than in 2008. Somehow they got ‘em to vote.”
Read more: politico.com
Seriously? The Romney campaign did not expect Blacks to vote with enthusiasm for Obama in larger numbers than before? And these were the people that wanted to fix the economy?
I just can’t stop reading this article over and over again.
