For several weeks, politicians and pundits from the beltway to newsrooms have analyzed the results and implications of this historic election. While some make valid points, few have articulated the real reasons why Republicans didn’t fare as well as they hoped. Even fewer have given a direction for what it takes to be successful going forward.
Working on both the Mitt Romney campaign as his national coalitions director and the Rick Santorum campaign as his national campaign manager, perhaps I have a unique perspective. As a coach on the field understands better than an announcer in the booth why his team lost, the same applies in politics.
For the past decade, our country has been in a political flux, with the partisan pendulum swinging sharply from the left to right election after election. Nov. 6 looked to be a culmination of this with Republicans coming off a very successful midterm election in 2010 and a President who remained unpopular.
We were greatly mistaken. As the millions spent on the airwaves by both parties in critical swing states became white noise and each candidate made his own mistakes throughout the race, it is clear that this election was won on the strength of a superior ground operation.
While Republicans became overconfident from their successes in the last midterm, Democrats buckled down immediately and began to identify their voters. To those saying the GOP must water down and moderate its platform, let us remember that not once did those on the political left moderate their policies. Rather, they began by systematically revving up each section of their base.
Read More at unionleader.com . By Michael Biundo.
Photo Credit: Donkey Hotey (Creative Commons)
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True, the Democrats left their ground organization in tact and they did a wonderful job pulling voters into the booth, then again, having the fix in with the electronic machines coupled with all of the voter fraud, the outcome could not have been any different, than it turned out to be.
I am a RNC member however, I received at least 10 emails daily from Dems with only on or two from Repubs. something wrong with that picture? I think so!
The GOP’s problem is progressives are leading the party. If they are truly truly conservatives, the have no courage, and they have toooooooo much “self preservation” working in them. Just stand up for the truth GOP, and don’t worry about being re-elected! You won’t do that! I’m supporting TEA PARTY thinkers, not cowards.
The problem was massive voter fraud, not message or ground work. In 2014 we need armed lawmen at the polls to oversee the vote. Take steps to arrange it.
A agree, Popeye. Before we have armed lawmen, though, we need to have this election investigated and the real President put into office. We also need to make it mandatory for people to show their ID at voting booths and, perhaps, we need to go back to the paper system which is much less corruptible than the voting machines that we have now.
I am with you 100% Sandi. I never did like the idea of electronic voting as I feel that their sole purpose was to initiate fraud, I have always advocated the use of hand counted paper ballots and photo IDs.
The problem is the GOP! The party is not run by conservatives, it is run like a business heading into bankruptcy and we had better ditch the management. Its still hard to believe that we ran McCain last time, who has made a career out of ‘can’t walk and chew gum’ and Romney ‘who can only connect with the ‘so called 1%’. We need to represent ‘everybody’ with plans that will work for ‘everybody’. Its time to give up the trickle down economics BS and get real! The way we are headed we will have two choices left; a communist-type government or an aristocracy. When it comes down to it they both have pretty much the same ending.