Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter is trying to rationalize her outspoken support for Mitt Romney in the wake of his stunning defeat. “Romney was not the problem” is the title over her latest column. “Don’t Blame Romney” was the title over her column immediately after his defeat. “Romney is What the Country Needs Now” was the title over her column just before the election. She had confidently predicted a Romney victory, tweeting, “I can’t see a scenario where Romney wins less than 273 electoral votes.”
Since the stakes were so high, it is imperative that if conservative columnists and commentators are going to perform a useful educational function going forward, they should realize where they went wrong and why. Michael Barone, who had predicted a Romney landslide win, tells PJ Media that Romney was “outhustled in a base turnout election” and that voter fraud was not a significant factor.
Steve Baldwin, former Executive Director of the Council for National Policy and a former California state legislator, says the problem all along was that “…as any conservative from Massachusetts knew, Romney was a liberal at heart who, as Governor, led the nation in passing three of the left’s most sacred issues: Same sex marriage, Cap and Trade, and government control of health care.” Baldwin’s report, The Buying of a Movement, contends that Romney never had a conservative worldview but that he cultivated support among important parts of the conservative movement and media in order to remake himself for a presidential run. However, a significant number of conservatives nationwide clearly did not buy the argument that Romney was a legitimate conservative. They found their voice in websites like Renew America, founded by Stephen Stone and associated with Alan Keyes.
One of these issues—same-sex marriage—is worth a detailed examination. After attending Restoration Weekend in West Palm Beach, Florida, Ronald Radosh reports that leading conservative analysts and political leaders have concluded that the Republican Party has to move left on issues like illegal immigration and cultural issues. Regarding the latter, he notes that gay marriage initiatives were passed in four states on November 6. “We need a truce on divisive social issues” is supposed to be one of the verdicts from these conservative thinkers.
They need to think harder. First, the movement for gay rights, which is funded by billionaires like George Soros and rich homosexuals, will not accept a truce. Second, in the four states where gay marriage won on the ballot on November 6, the vote tallies against gay marriage surpassed the vote totals for Romney. In Maryland, Romney was behind the vote for traditional marriage by 12 points. This is telling. It means that a certain number of people voted against Obama’s position on gay marriage, but they did not vote for Romney. This suggests that Romney failed to galvanize social conservatives on his behalf.
Although Romney’s position was that he was in favor of traditional marriage, he did not campaign on the issue. What’s more, he had said publicly that the spontaneous public protests in favor of Chick-fil-A over its CEO’s comments in favor of traditional marriage were not part of his campaign. In addition, during the campaign, he reiterated his support for opening up the Boy Scouts to homosexuals.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel recognizes the political reality. On the group’s “Faith and Freedom” radio show, he pointed out that Romney failed to speak out in favor of traditional marriage, including in the four states with gay marriage on the ballot. In addition to Maryland, they were Minnesota, Maine, and Washington. “Had he done so,” Staver said, “his numbers would’ve gone up and I bet the marriage polls would’ve gone up.” Instead, he noted, Romney was a “one-note” candidate who focused almost exclusively on the economy.
George W. Bush, when he was running for re-election in 2004, was smart enough to realize that he should campaign for president by emphasizing support for traditional marriage. Bush had endorsed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Many commentators believe that the anti-gay marriage measures on the ballots in 11 states in 2004 helped drive Bush’s re-election. The ballot measures passed easily, receiving on average roughly 70 percent support. The belief is that some of this support went to Bush as a result of his campaign emphasizing traditional marriage. In other words, social conservatives were motivated to go to the polls, and some of this support rubbed off on Bush. In the swing state of Ohio, which Bush won, it was seen as critical.
The rationale behind Romney’s candidacy was that the economy would propel him to victory. How many times did we hear the claim that “No President since FDR has been re-elected when unemployment is above 8 percent?” Emphasizing his business acumen, Coulter had confidently predicted, “Romney will be the most accomplished incoming president since Dwight Eisenhower.”
Bombarded with messages from the Obama campaign and the Soros-funded propaganda machine, including the Super PACs he funded, voters found Romney’s private sector experience on Wall Street and wealth more objectionable than Obama’s record as a Marxist president. Of course, Romney, acting on the advice of Karl Rove, never uttered the word “Marxist” or “socialist” when talking about Obama. Romney ran a campaign that was designed in part to win the votes of those who went for Obama in 2008. It was a disaster in the making that many prominent conservatives in the media did not see coming. Some still do not want to grasp the magnitude of the defeat.
Read more stories like this at www.AIM.org.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons)
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Mitt Romney was not the perfect candidate, but he was way better of an option than Obama! And while I disagree with Ann Coulter a lot these days, this is not one of those times.
I’m positive that any thorough investigation done regarding VOTER FRAUD would prove that Obama stole the election. From Eric Holder filing lawsuits against states that wanted to clean up their VOTER ROLES, judges in numerous courts across the country blocking the implementation of showing an ID to vote, early voting, undercover videos showing fraud being perpetrated, voter machines switching from Romney to Obama, more votes in precincts than actual legally registered voters, it’s not a stretch to believe that Obama tole the election.
But you Mr. Kincaid, along with many other writers featured on conservative leaning sites just want to ignore the elephant in the room and believe the spin that the Obama camp and their media allies tell you too.
Sure, stories have been put out that even though conservative enthusiasm was very high all the way up till election day, but on that day, they just decided to stay home and let the guy whose purposely trying to destroy this country continue to do so?
There is no proof that people who claim to be conservatives and just stayed home actually were conservatives and not the typical “MAN ON THE STREET” bs that’s put forth by the MSM every year for the last few decades.;
When the backgrounds of those people are look into, it usually turns out that they aren’t independent, but rather a liberal pretending to be conservative.
I don’t buy this BS at all. But the fact that you do is cause for concern in my book.
Well said labar!!!
AG Holder only sued states with known close races, and never even threatened the RED States like Oklahoma, who has a good voter ID law that requires a Birth certificate to obtain, obama and Holder knew it was much easier to fake or destroy a few hundred thousand votes so they only went after those close states,
Mitt Romney was the wrong candidate.
Amen!! That’s why Obama won. Because the GOP picked such a lousy candidate!!
Thank you, Daniel! Amen!
the GOP lost because of Vote Fraud, the stats prior to the election night were in the GOP’s favor, yet election night all those reversed ?, Romney was leading in virtually ever poll, but thats to AGHolder and his targeted lawsuits on voter ID laws, the States that HAD them, voted significantly GOP, …those that did NOT have them, …..voted for obama,….coincidence ?,,…not hardly….
Dan, the truth is that it would not have mattered who the candidate was, the “Chicago fix was in”, the Less than Honorable Eric H. Holder and his army of lawyers fought and won by keeping voter ID out of most states. The simple fact that Obama won (stole) votes in certain districts and counties that he won well over 100% of the vote clearly proves that the election was stolen. I agree that Romney was not the perfect candidate, is there a perfect candidate, no!
The American people saw the real Obama during the first debate, there is no one home, he is an empty headed ex drug user that blew away most of his brain cells during his days at Occidental and Harvard, Romney blew any change that he might have had during the second and third debate.
If Romney would have kept the same intensity as he did during the first debate, the American people would not have accepted an Obama win, knowing full well that the Chicago fix was in, since few sane people would have voted for true empty chair.
All politician’s are politician’s, and like most politician’s, they will do anything, and say anything to remain in power, right RINO McCain?. Romney was somewhat unique, he was a self made multi millionaire, he did it on his own, not like Pelosi and Boehner, that made their millions through insider trading. what drove him was his ego and America lost any opportunity to recover from the destructive path that Obama and his dysfunctional Administration has us on and now again have us on.
Unless the American people demand a full re-count of all absentee ballots in the five major key swing states, America is in its death spiral and it won’t be long before Sharia law is brought to whatever is left of this country.
It seems to me that what the Republicans needed for a candidate to go up against Barrack was for this candidate to be a thug himself. Romney is far from that title.
I do believe with all my heart that Romney could have won and there was a lot of fraud going on. That needs to be looked into deeper.
the FBI is currently quarantining voting machines that were reported to be choosing obama when Romney was pushed,…….this is prevalent in EVERY State with HIGH minority and illegal Alien populations….
tediza, you are absolutely 100% correct, fraud pulled BO over the finish like. Take away his TelePrompTer and he sounds like a complete idiot!
Wow, we are already lining up for another fiasco! If true conservatism is not the answer we are doomed as a nation. No if, ands, or buts about it. How could anyone think we can survive a debt of anywhere from 17 trillion to 40 trillion. The interest on the debt will become more than our GDP. That is an impossible burden to surmount. That’s aside from the moral question of forcing moral people to fund activities that are CLEARLY immoral. We already have the RINOS who go along to get along and we see that does not work. What good can possibly come from electing a congress of RINOS. I think the only reasonable thing to do is let the liberals tear the nation down and if they do it quickly enough we may be able to reconstruct this once great nation from the trashbin
This was RIGHT ON THE BUTTON. This election will be one that future Republican Presidential candidates will study and learn from if they wish to win. Sadly, I really don’t believe we had the very best choices/candidates to run for the position of President. This one was back to chosing from the “second string”. We need to get another Ronald Reagan who’s not afraid to stick it to them. NOW is the time to start the search, find him and start preparing him to remove the socialist agenda.