AP calling NC for Romney.

Mitt wins NC!

Still a narrow path to victory, but there's still hope as long as VA, FL, OH, CO/IA/NV aren't won by Obama.

Kaine wins senate rate in VA, but Romney clinging to narrow lead.

It's now all but over at this point. There are not enough Republican counties left in Florida left uncounted. Only three quarters of Miami-Dade county have been counted so far and it's heavily Democratic. As soon as they call Florida for Obama, the ball game will be over.

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all that happened at the state conventions and the wholesale throwing out of
scores of delegates from attending tampa... may have saved romney a little embarassment at the convention, but may have cost him the election. payback may be sweet.... anyway, we lose with either of these two clowns.
looks like the republican party is bent on comitting suicide.
i couldn't vote for obama, but neither could i ever consider romney either.

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The courage to speak up.
Rick Santorum On Libertarian influence in the Conservative movement:

“They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do. Government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulation low and that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues, you know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world, and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone.”

We lost Ohio. It's over.

America has sealed it's fate.

That's what we get for putting someone like Romney up to represent us. I know it wasn't any of us here that did it but we have a lot of Rep. that can't seem to see the light.

Who was it here that said they heard Mrs. Huckabee talking about Mike looking more toward a 2016 run instead of a 2012 run. That's what I'm looking forward to.

I can understand people not wanting to vote for Romney, but I am absolutely shocked that so many people cast their vote for Obama. Unemployment and the deficit higher now than when Obama took office, the Benghazi cover up, the HHS mandate... this is a sad day for America.

I think Dick Morris damaged his credibility by making that statement. Not only has the President been re-elected but I think he's likely to win with 331 electoral votes. Which actually is only 34 EVs less than the 2008 election. This is likely to be an electoral blowout.

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As a European, I'm very worried about this.

My dream is to do a PhD. I'd love to become an economic researcher. But to do so, I will have to rely on government - or rather, European union - funding. There are no other options unfortunately.

But I watch as the European Union is falling apart. Can I really rely on them to fund a PhD? What if the union falls apart and I'm left without funding mid-way through my PhD? This may sound paranoid but it worries me. And now that the US is definitely going over a fiscal cliff, doing a PhD in the US is also ruled out. And a European collapse just became so much more likely, because the US is no longer interested in leading the world. Europe has always depended, one way or the other, on the US. With the US going over the fiscal cliff and back into recession, we'll be back in recession too (many countries are already there here in Europe).

I recently made a good contact. I've gotten to know a guy named Chris who is a hedge fund manager and a former Goldman Sachs executive. I made a great impression on him and he's expressed serious interest in possibly hiring me after I graduate with a Master's Degree. Working at a hedge fund has never been my first choice, I just haven't felt it's my calling. But now it looks like I might have to spend a few years there anyway, because doing a PhD today is just too risky.

Yeah, I know, poor me, having to work for a hedge fund and make big money for a few years while waiting for the economy to recover. I just hate having to postpone following what is my dream and what I perceive to be my calling.

(obviously I don't have a job offer yet, but I made a good impression and he seriously said he'd consider hiring me).

For months I've told my Republican friends that Romney was going to lose. They thought I was crazy. They thought like probably many of you that there was no way America would re-elect Obama after the disastrous 4 years we've had. But I kept trying to tell them that Romney had to make a convincing case and put forward a vision that people could follow. Instead he was running the typical establishment campaign, and it was a loser from the beginning.

It will be interesting to watch Fox tomorrow to see where they put the blame. I sincerely doubt they'll put the blame where it belongs.

Live your dream and don't let any external factors, including whatever is going on with any governments, stop you. If you work hard and dedicate yourself toward your goal, you will be successful and nothing will stop you. And who knows, maybe with your advanced education, you will be in a position to advise our government and other governments on how to function properly and get out of debt. You'll be successful in your goal and please remember us at HA when you are.

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I want to follow my last post with saying that I also told many that after Obama won you were going to see lots of hand-wringing by Christians declaring that we should go hide in a cave and wait for Armageddon. That is nonsense. The hope of this country is not its political leaders. The hope of this country is that Christians will get their own houses in order and start living like Christians. America's political climate will follow its spiritual climate.

I have a lot of reason to hope for our future. I'm seeing a subtle but sure undercurrent throughout Christianity to stop with all the games and to start getting serious about following their Christian faith.

Sorry to get on my spiritual soapbox in the middle of a political thread, but I felt I had to interject that.

Sadly, I feared this would happen. After 2008 and since, I've REALLY started to distrust the conservative pundits and their wishful thinking. At some point we need to stop being wishful that people will 'get it' and instead being more proactive. The Republican brand is on the decline and in need of some serious PR work. I know TVV has harped on it since the creation of this site (and probably earlier!), we need to start reaching out and stop ignoring large segments of people. Other than TVV, Huckabee is the ONLY one I've heard talk about this. The dynamics are changing, and we are not keeping up.

Sorry for the downer.

On the other side, this is not the end. Sun will come up tomorrow. Hopefully the establishment will get a wake up call and rethink their strategy.

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Brett

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It's hard to imagine a political party winning elections when the majority of Hispanics (10% of the electorate, more in certain swing states) don't trust it and almost all blacks (13% of the electorate, more in certain swing states) not only think that the party dislikes them but know that the party isn't even interested in asking for their vote. This is how, even with an incumbent President with marginal popularity and uneven results, the party ends up saying bye-bye to states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, Colorado and Nevada. It's insane and a recipe for short-term disaster and medium-term permanent irrelevancy. And we haven't even talked about young people yet.

How many Presidential elections does the GOP have to lose before somebody who is in charge comes to the realization that it's no longer 1980, the Southern Strategy doesn't work anymore and that you can't bury your head in the sand and pretend that a quarter of the electorate doesn't exist? At some point, doesn't simple intellectual curiosity lead one to ask those people why it is that they don't respond to you - instead of just asking each other? Clearly not many inside the GOP leadership have the answer to the question; it's really time to start talking to people outside of the tiny shrinking tent.

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What is so frustrating is that there is a natural coalition that is out there just waiting for Republicans, but establishment Republicans don't want to go after them because it doesn't fit with their agenda. That natural coalition is similar to the old Reagan coalition, but you can also attract more hispanics and African Americans. You can attract them with a principled grass roots conservative message.

Think about when Republicans have had their best years? It was during mid-terms when the grass roots are driving the bus and it's less about the national establishment. The people we need to attract to come over and vote with us are turned off with the Corporate Elitist tone of national establishment candidates. They distrust these guys as only being concerned about the big money elites, and they are right.

The reality is there was no Presidential candidate this time around who could be that person to attract all of these voters who were just waiting for someone to give them a reason to cross over and vote Republican.

I do think there are some people out there that could do this. I've got my eye on people like Ted Cruz, and I like John Kasich. Since this is a night for me to say unpopular things I'll go ahead and say that I don't believe we'll see a Huckabee 2016. But that's ok, there are some strong leaders out there that have potential for the future.

I voted Mitt for President yesterday.

Post subject: Re: USA TODAY: Reports: Paul Ryan to be named Romney's VP

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:42 am

I'll start this post this way...

In my opinion, a Romney/Ryan Ticket is not going to win this election.

On 3-11-12, I wrote:
"I my humble opinion, a Mitt win in November is a defeat and loss for conservatives. In my opinion, minus well keep B.O. in office so a real conservative will emerge in the 2016 election. I think if Romney is the Republican nominee, he will lose, and at a large margin. Then and only then will the Insiders in the Republican Party will start to realize they are on the wrong track.
Then, hopefully, Huckabee will hear that small still Voice to 'Do The Right Thing".
As far as Ryan's endorsment of Romney? IMO, he just sold himself for 30 pieces of silver.
Just my thoughts."
Peter

Also, in my opinion, Romney does not care about us. He cares for himself and his grerat dreams of himself [dare I say Pride?] just like Obama.

What we need for a President is a "Washington" who declined to run a second term so America could be seen as "WE THE PEOPLE".

I believe that Individual will rise up...with the help of God...and restore the Greatness of America.

Are you that individual?

Instead of focasing on the Presidency, I will now focus on Senate and Congress races to make sure that Conservitives win the majority.

God Bless...Peter

Actually you can win quite alot of races the way the GOP is currently set. The Republicans won another Governor's office tonight, they flipped the Arkansas House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction and will likely hold more of the total elected offices nationwide than they did on Monday.

They also have more "minority" governors than the Dems, have as many Senators now, and are constantly trying to run viable minority candidates at all levels.

What the GOP did not have this time (or last) was a good candidate. The Chicago approach was to use every socio/economic/ethnic hot button issue and stereotype they could muster and rally a coalition based on fear, governmental largess, racial solidarity, and sexual orientation. The race became about why Mitt Romney was not only not "one of them" but was the enemy and "the man" that should be the worthy target for ones vote of "revenge."

Mitt simple did not have the personality, background, or ethnicity, to give him enough cover from that assault. Huck had the personality and background. A Rubio or Jindal might have the ethnic appeal.

The GOP has needed to broaden its appeal. But make no mistake. The Democratic Party has mastered the art (for more than 150 years) of race, religion, and class politics (and now we add sex and sexual oreintation).

Defeating that intentional strategy of baiting is very difficult and requires politicians of extraordinary skill. Mitt and McCain were clearly not up to the challenge.

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"As for us, our days of combat are over. Our swords are rust. Our guns will thunder no more. The vultures that once wheeled over our heads must be buried with their prey. Whatever of glory must be won in the council or the closet, never again in the field. I do not repine. We have shared the incommunicable experience of war; we have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

I should have been more specific. You can't imagine winning national races when huge portions of whole demographic groups of voters think that a political party dislikes them. Not when the election is even remotely close.



That's true and I think that more than anything else, they need to have candidates who, no matter what "group" they belong to, feel comfortable addressing and seeking out support from every other group. That's actually the most important thing. Not the demographic identity of a candidate but the overall quality of the candidate as well as the candidate's comfort with building relationships with all voters.



I agree that the GOP didn't have a good candidate and that the Obama campaign threw the kitchen sink at Romney, especially in terms of class warfare (I will say that I didn't see an overt usage of race as a wedge issue by either candidate). But it is pretty likely that a good candidate, like either Huckabee or Jeb Bush, would have probably won. Of course, one of the things that makes those folks good candidates is the fact that they have demonstrated a comfort level and a willingness to build relationships outside of their party's established demographic base.



I actually don't think that the candidate's "race" has much to do with their appeal or their vulnerability. I think a candidate who had the ability to connect with a broad spectrum of voters would win.



I really, truly believe that both parties have mastered this art.



I don't think it requires extraordinary skill to build relationships with a broad and diverse electorate. I just think it takes effort. But you can't court voters you don't bother talking to, you can't target messages to groups that you don't understand and an organization cannot simultaneously ignore, offend and attract the same group of people at the same time and expect to be successful.

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