[flxmglrb]

Romney lost because he was a terrible candidate, simple as that. Even the Republican base hated him.

Right now the GOP leadership is busy flailing around trying to figure out why they didn't win. The ones who have gotten closest to the truth are the ones who have zeroed in on this year's lower-than-normal turnout of traditionally Republican voters (as this article touches upon). However, the underlying reason for that wasn't a failure of software or a lack of last-minute "get out the vote" campaigning, it's because people just plain didn't like Romney.

Remember the primaries? For months the Republican primaries were a game of "anybody but Romney". The primary voters at times even gave consideration to total crackpots like Santorum and Cain. Think about it -- they sent the message that they'd rather have some unelectable whackjob like Rick Santorum than be stuck with Romney. That's how much they didn't like him. But when it was all said and done, the Republicans finally gritted their teeth and accepted Romney as the nominee, despite the fact that they really, really didn't like the idea. Then on election day, many Republicans simply stayed home rather than hold their nose and vote for the guy.

Even if this "Orca" thing had worked perfectly it's doubtful it would have changed much. Republican voters' dislike of Romney just ran too deep.

[ams6110]

unelectable whackjob

Hard to say that, given how the so-called "electable" guy did.

My objection always was, the republicans nominated the guy who could not beat the last guy who could not beat Obama (i.e. McCain).

[flxmglrb]

Santorum is "unelectable" in the same way as Sarah Palin. Since they are so extreme, there will always be a small, dedicated swath of people who like them, and they can even get enough local support to get elected to an office, however once they hit the national stage they're toast.

Also, I completely agree it is ludicrous how the Republicans chose to nominate someone less popular than McCain and are now acting surprised that he got fewer votes. Gee, no one could have predicted that!