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Subscribe to RSSAs Mitt Romney's long, hard-fought race for the presidency came to an end, the campaign faced a stinging loss – and at one point even cut out the audio on broadcast screens in the campaign's election night ballroom as the results poured in. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
As Republicans sort through what went wrong for former Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday, they might look back ruefully at four words that became forever associated with the GOP nominee: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
There are varied reasons for President Barack Obama's re-election to a second term, from changing demographics to superior campaign organization and beyond. And Obama's broad margin in the Electoral College meant that no single state was responsible for his victory over Romney.
David Goldman / AP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrives to his election-night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 7, in Boston.
But as Republicans begin to pick through the aftermath of Romney's loss, Romney's struggles to address his opposition the 2009 rescue of General Motors and Chrysler stymied an effort to gain a foothold in Obama's Midwestern "firewall," and turn his attention to other key battleground states.
Related: Romney's chances in Ohio tied to softening auto bailout stance
It was an issue with which Romney struggled for the duration of the campaign, as Obama traipsed across Midwestern states, hammering away against his Republican opponent on the issue, while touting the resurgence of GM and Chrysler following the billions in aid provided to the companies.
A strong majority - 60 percent - of voters on Tuesday in Ohio said that they had approved of the auto bailout, and Obama beat Romney among those voters by a healthy 73 to 25 percent difference.
In Wisconsin, another state that composed Obama's firewall (along with Iowa), a majority of voters - 53 percent - said they had approved of the bailout. Obama bested Romney among those voters, 79 to 20 percent.
Republican political strategist Mike Murphy joins Chuck Todd to talk about Mitt Romney's struggle to court the popular vote.
Those numbers suggest that Romney's effort over the past year to recast his opposition to the bailout, put bluntly, failed.
Romney's New York Times op-ed opposing then-President George W. Bush's efforts to extend aid to the troubled automakers came just weeks after the 2008 election -- four years ago next Saturday, to be exact.
And while it's unlikely that the former Massachusetts governor himself wrote the provocative headline that would stick with him through his 2012 campaign, he wrestled and struggled with the issue throughout his battle with Obama.
Even in the primaries, Romney's conservative challengers argued it was callous for him to have supported the Wall Street bailout while opposing the auto rescue, especially as a native son of Michigan whose father ran a car company when Romney was young.
Romney reasoned that the managed bankruptcy endured by GM and Chrysler was actually his idea in the first place. And then he pivoted to argue that bondholders and dealers were shortchanged in that process, to the benefit of autoworkers' unions, which had backed Obama in 2008.
But neither of those arguments seemed to resonate in the long term, prompting Romney in the closing weeks of the campaign to address his deficiency with a deeply misleading pair of radio and TV ads stoking fears that Jeep was planning to move production from the U.S. to China.
Those ads were ostensibly an effort to make gains with swing voters in the outlying areas surrounding Toledo, the home to a major Jeep production facility.
But Obama carried Lucas County, which includes Toledo, last night by the same margins as 2008. The president also carried nearby Ottowa and Wood Counties (albeit by a slimmer margin than '08), despite Bush having won both in 2000 and 2004.
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Still misrepresenting, even after your guy won. Mitt was for controlled bankruptcy, like the airlines did. that remains the better path, long term. There is no indication the 'bailout worked.' We'll see how OH's doing in 4 years. The'll get what they voted for.
It's like the fiscal cliff, which became a big deal Tuesday night. They'll end up doing pretty much what Mitt suggested. Suspect anyone will be gratious enough to acknowledge that?
Oh the Republicans will come with all kinds of reasons why Romney/Ryan lost....well, has anyone mentioned it might just be their platform and "message" of hatred, oppression and disrespect for women, exclusionary attitude and insulting American voters repeatedly, as well as his buddying-up with Netanyhou?! They would have gotten us into a war with Iran gladly, while cutting VA benefits, and all social programs that actually HELP people! No, the story didn't cause them to lose another presidential election....it's the hateful Republican message!
Now it's time to enact term limits on the federal level. Also real campaign reform so we don't have to see all this campaigning for 18 months. No PACs, no lobbyists, etc.
Amen to that. No one should be able to give more than a $1,000 to a campaign, whether you are a corporation, individual or union. Then let's see how creative the ad agencies can be. If the presidents are limited to 8 years, that's good enough for Congress too. Enough career politicians and the free ride of healthcare for life! That will save some money. Everyone should have to pay 20% of their healthcare premiums. Then let's institute merit pay like some want for teachers.
Mitt almost PULLED it off.....he had a lot of RIGHT wing.......Zombies behin him........SO ....SO close......
but OBAMA put him AWAY in two days.........
He Blew a Lead the size of TEXAS.......Obama just SHORT of gave it to him......
All the conservatives that TRIED their best to talk up Mitt and drive up his Stats and POLL numbers.........in total DENIAL of the FACT Obama was Crushing Mitt with an Electro College........A long time ago........HOW COULD YOU HAVE NOT realized MITT was goiing to GET CRUSHED...........
I knew it after ........Sandy......Christies Comments .........and that 8 STATE 2 day Ground GAME........he just MOWED.........Romney like a B-52 Carpet Bombing his ass....passing out PLANS on manuscript and ROMNEY had NO answer........
Out there picking up Water crates at Sandy.......Looking like he never worked a day in his life.......lifting with his Back instead of his Knees.........I was laughing my ass off....cause it was all an ACT
GOOD Job Obama.........You EARNED it FAIR and SQUARE and he Fought FIRE with Fire........so PROUD of my PRESIDENT........
At first it looked like he was going to give it to MITT and MITT got complacent and sat on his laurels............and OBAMA slammed his ass after SANDY and MITT never ............COUNTERED........MITT BLEW a ten point LEAD in a 3 Weeks while OBAMA won by ONE POINT in less than two days...with the 8 STATE two DAY Air Force ONE ground GAME..........Thats what HAPPEN
As they say in FOOTBALL he ran the BALL straight into the TEETH of the DEFENSE that Had NO answer......even in BAD WEATHER.......lol
Romney never overcome his constant lying and flip flopping, either. Right up to his last week of campaigning, he was lying about Jeep moving to China. And his fake photo-op of collecting canned good for hurricane Sandy victims was a total farse.
He wouldn't even talk to a reporter his last 3 weeks and had Ryan hid away and some states where he wasn't even wanted.
This article simply reinforces what we already know. Socialists and liberal democrats like bailouts of the private industry using taxpayer money. Socialists and liberal democrats like it when the president writes his own verson of the bankruptcy rules by elevating one party over another (union workers over bondholders). By the way, Government Motors still owes taxpayers $25 BILLION.
BUILT FORD TOUGH - you know, the other American car company that didn't take taxpayer money
Nick.... check your info again! All money has been paid back to taxpayers WITH INTEREST!!
Nick- lets imagine a different scenero- you are in office 30 days and have already suffered 850,000 job losses with another 800,000+ staring you in the face.
Let the auto industry enter Bankruptcy with NO funding and the requirement to lay off the employees( add another 1,000,000 to the 800,000 already being layed off) as no money is in the checking account to pay salary or be pragmatic and do for them what you are already doing for the banksters
You make the call- it isnt political its PRAGMATIC
quit with the socialist BS
Nick, don't forget the bailout of $600M from American taxpayers and government for the Olympics that Mitt saved. And all of the land the Olympics sat on was owned by the Mormon Church. But then again he did it all by himself without help from anyone! Yah Right!
Hey Lori, guess what? YOU'RE WRONG! Apparently you believe everything the left tells you. GMAC still owes $25 BILLION to the taxpayers in the form of shares of stock that will never reach the value that was paid for them. 40% of GM is owned by the government. When a government controls the means of production, that is SOCIALISM. Look it up. Get the fact straight before you run off at the mouth and make yourself look like a fool again.
Congratulations to President Obama and to our country for re-electing a man who has always had our best interest in his heart and mind. Romney simply could not connect with us on any level, or find a stance on any issue. Romney, as I saw it, wanted to be President for the prestige, adoration, and to be in the public eye. He was the puppet of the Republican party and as Grover Norquist said, "we already know what we (Republicans) want, we just need a man with enought working digits on his hand to hold a pen and sign" All decisions would have been made for him.... scary! We fought a good, hard fight and came through it all with the best man for the job of President. I can't say that feel sorry for Mitt...not even a little bit, because of the hatred and disrespect he showed towards the President through the whole campaign. Mitt thought that money, lies, and division would get him elected, but he was sadly wrong. I read this article about the morning after... a breakfast that he had with his aides, etc., and thought to myself, this man has not learned anything! Not winning wasn't his fault, or even the fault of the Republican party (in his mind). Hopefully, we will never have to hear another word from Mitt... he actually makes my skin crawl. Here's the article... thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/at-a-breakfast-with-aides-romney-reflects-on-the-campaign/?smid=tw-nytimes
Congratulations again to our President!!!! I have faith that you can keep our country and economy moving FORWARD!!!
I guess not everything can be etch a sketched no matter how hard you try
I said it............when Mitt had a 8 point lead just 4 WEEKS AGO
Come Christmas time...........MItt Romney will not be in our Vocabulary
as we sit underneath the MISTLE TOE..........
HO......HO...Mother*******..HO.........MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Enjoy!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-november-7-2012-nate-silver
He lost because he's a twit who changed his position depending on the audience. Remember the etch-a-sketch comment. Further, he represented a party of extremists with ignorant abortion comments, and a willingness to let the nation suffer rather than bend when it comes to closing tax loopholes for the wealthy. He chose for a running mate a person who proposed a radical budget plan which was dismissed by almost every economist in the country. The Republican party better wake up and change the "I-me-mine attitude" or they will become completely irrelevant.
It's the end of Nixon's southern strategy. It lasted for a long time, 30ish years. From the 70s to 2008, the Dems only had two presidents, Carter and Clinton, both white men from the South. Now, Obama is not from the South and not even white. The Republicans gained the South and had a majority for a while, but as they moved more and more to the right, they lost the North and the West, and those two sections of the country have many more people than the South and the Heartland put together. Now, the Republicans will need to move back towards the center to regain any legitimacy.
From 1968 to 2008. 12 years of dems in the WH out of 40 years. The repubs like to lay it off on dem congresses when someone brings that little tidbit up but then who were the presidents that signed all those terrible dem congress bills 'cause it sure wasn't a dem president that did much for 40 years? lol
Mitt blew being elected because he was not for all of the people, he was for 1-2% of the people. He tried to take credit for something he was completely against and heaped lie, upon lie, upon lie throughout his campaign. The best one was, "I stand by what I said, whatever that was". LOL...lied so much he couldn't remember what he said!!!
White people mourning Romney
http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com
Dear Irving, do not forget to count the success for the Olympics without mentioning the $600M government and taxpayer money that helped pay for them and the Mormon Church that owned the property that the Olympics sat on. But of course Romney got there by himself without anyone else helping!
The repubs were doomed from the start of their nominaion process. The repub debates fried them. The televised debate where the teabagger in the crowd yelled out "Let him die!"when a candidate was talking about someone with no insurance having an emergency health problem, showed the entire public what exactly makes up the so-called 'base' of the repub party. Doomed from the beginning. It was like watching a Keystone Cop movie. lol
Shephard, I know a lot of rich Iowa farmers who get lots of farm subsidies from the government and they are staunch Republicans. They took the government farm payments and bought more land, but don't touch their S.S. So just who are the "takers" here?
The Republican Party needs to do a major self-examination:
1) This is no longer the America of the 1950's. The US is getting browner. Women are a force to be reckoned with. Might as well admit it. Currently, the Republican Party looks like a bunch of angry old white men.
2) The party needs to be inclusionary. Currently, the Republican Party is exclusionary. The crowd at Romney's concession speech looked like the weekly meeting of the KKK.
3) The party needs to move back to the center. Currently, the Republican Party has gone too far to the right. They never WILL win a national election if they stay so hard right.
4) The party needs to do a smack-down on the Teabaggers. Bring those extremists in line. Disavow them if necessary. Kick them out of the party if needed. They are dragging the party to oblivion. The Tea Party cannot govern because they are too hardline and unwilling to compromise. They don't care about the country. They are loyal only to their ideology.
5) Quit trying to suppress the vote. If the only way the party can win is to fix the game, it isn't worth much.
6) Stay out of women's health issues. They have absolutely no insights to offer, if Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock are any example of Republican thinking.
7) Quit running weak candidates. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were the best the party could find? Really? Look harder in the future. Do a better job of vetting.
8) Quit running looneytune candidates. I give you Todd Akin, Riuchard Mourdock, Michelle Bachmann. Need I more?
9) Quit assuming that the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, or Faux Noise in general speak for or to the people. They are niche marketers, all of them, and that's all they are.
10) Send Grover Norquist and his phony pledges packing. Who is he anyway that he holds so much power?
The Republicans lost the election because they deserved to. President Obama ran a better, more organized, and smarter campaign than Richie Rich and Eddie Munster. Thank God he was re-elected.
All you needed were the words "deeply misleading" when referring to Romney's commercials.
Romney did a number of things wrong, he changed his position on healthcare and everything else to please the TEA PARTY radicals, he said that he did not care about 47 % of Americans, he pays a lower tax rate on his 30million annual income then many middle class workers pay, he by his wealth and lifestyle can not connect with the average income citizens, he has the personality of a cold fish. I saw few presidential bumper stickers on cars for either candidate, my thoughts are nobody really liked either of them very much.