Obama Defeats Romney: Quick Thoughts On The Election Outcome And The Future Of The Republican Party

 Granted, with the economy still in the toilet Republicans thought they could take back the White House.  Given that Republicans did not win a single ethnic minority, perhaps there needs to be some thinking on how to make inroads in the Hispanic vote.  Working to pass some sort of immigration law at some point over the next few years may very well take place. I would also not be shocked if Marco Rubio is the candidate in four years (and I said long ago that he is who I would have picked as the running mate this time). 

 But the Republican party cannot become pro-choice or whatever else pundits have in mind to save it without cutting drastically into its base (and core beliefs). This was a razor thin election in the popular vote against an incumbent and many were shocked with the base voter turnout Obama pulled off, which was similar to 2008. Republicans need to also work on getting out their base, which Romney did not accomplish as well as he had to, or as well as Obama or even McCain. Romney took substantially more independents, which goes to show this is not Republican "extremism" or party "purism" at issue. Not only that, in the last two elections Republicans did indeed run their more moderate candidates in John McCain and Mitt Romney, and they lost. 

I don't generally care for this whole lumping of people into groups and trying to appeal to certain groups to win votes anyhow. That's how the Democrats operate, it is not the way a party that values individual liberty should run for office. Obama ran a largely negative campaign and maybe that worked this time. I'm not sure why the American people fell for it, but I don't think he has much in the way of a decent record over the last four years at all making him worthy. And yes, others may like the idea of various entitlements or handouts they receive and it may move their votes. The American people may not be ready for seriously tackling entitlement reform. Hurricane Sandy may have even played a shifting role in the election. If the election were in the thick of the Benghazi scandal unraveling rather than right after Sandy, Mitt Romney might very well be the President. 

Then again, I don't think most voters are very informed to begin with, most are not actually paying attention, and it's hard for me to know exactly what the average uninformed person has on his mind when he goes to the polling place and casts that vote. Tweet