Or, better turnout among GOP white voters would have elected Romney as well:
DAILY CALLER – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would have won the presidency if the white and black turnout rates had stayed at their 2004 levels, according to a new analysis of 2012 election.
“The battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same,” according to The Associated Press’s summary of research by William Frey, an expert at the Brookings Institution.
Overall turnout declined from 62 percent in 2008 to 58 percent in 2012, Frey reported.
The drop-off reduced the overall turnout by up to 5 million votes, despite a slight increase in the number of eligible white voters, said the AP report.
In 2004, the national turnout was 60 percent, and black turnout was significantly below 2008 and 2012 levels.
The 2012 drop-off was concentrated among GOP-leaning white voters.
The AP’s report is corroborated by Resurgent Republic, a right-of-center polling and research firm, which measured turnout changes from 2008 to 2012.
Obama’s campaign benefited from a 17 percent turnout increase among unmarried people, a 9 percent increase among unmarried women, a 10 percent rise in Hispanic voters and a 6 percent rise in the youth vote.
I was pulling for Romney to win as much as the next guy. He may have turned out to be more of a squish like many Republicans in the House and Senate today, but it would have been a squish in the right direction.
However, note that the report says the 2012 drop-off to 58% was “concentrated among GOP-leaning white voters”. To me, this is just more proof that moderate squish candidates who lack the conviction of a true conservative candidate just isn’t going to cut it. We can’t win with a Romney because not enough of us will vote for a Romney. But we can win with a solid conservative candidate.
We need to keep this in mind in 2016 when we elect our primary candidate. Almost anyone would be better than Obama as president, but that is setting the bar too low. We need a good communicator and someone with strong core principles and appeal. I don’t know who that will be in 2016, but I can think of several candidates who I’d like to see in that spot.
But what I do know is we don’t need to pander to a bunch of ‘minority groups’ like we have in the past. We do need better outreach though to minority groups and the message needs to be universal, the message needs to be conservatism. It’s time to bring this country back together and a good conservative communicator can help begin the process.