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Whovian

(2,866 posts)
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:04 AM Nov 2012

Republicans Failed to Understand Their Opponent... From The American Conservative???? WTF?

Byron York reports on the bewilderment of Romney supporters:

“I am shocked, I am blown away,” said Joe Sweeney, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I thought I had a pretty good pulse on this stuff. I thought there was a trend that was going on underground.”

It isn’t Mr. Sweeney’s fault that he believed this, or at least not entirely. He trusted conservative media and conservative pundits not to mislead him, and they let him down badly. There really was a difference this year between the standard loyalist whistling-past-the-graveyard that one sees in every election and a full-out effort among quite a few in the conservative media to deceive Romney’s supporters about the prospects of success. It’s one thing not to want to be defeatist or to give one’s “side” reasons to doubt its success, and quite another to be boldly announcing that major, overwhelming success is just around the corner when there is no good reason to expect it. I sympathize with people who supported Romney for good, principled reasons, because they were being lied to throughout the year. First, Romney lied to them that they could trust him, and then Romney’s boosters in conservative media lied to them by painting them a rosy portrait of the political landscape that they had to know was almost certainly wrong.

But the problem wasn’t just that conservative media gave Romney supporters bad information. The people in conservative media also seem to have been fully taken in by the idea that Romney would win and would do so in decisive fashion, and the campaign came to believe its own propaganda, too. As York notes, Romney didn’t have a prepared concession speech. It apparently never occurred to his campaign that he would lose. That’s not so remarkable by itself, but it is just one part of the overall pattern of the Romney campaign and the conservative movement’s reaction to Obama. Romney spent years running against a fantasy record and campaigning on a series of gross distortions and falsehoods, and so it shouldn’t be too surprising that his campaign and his conservative media boosters didn’t have the firmest grip on political reality.

When you pretend that you’re running against another Jimmy Carter, and you actually start to believe it, you’re not fully prepared to compete with a sitting president whose record and approval ratings are nothing like Carter’s. Organizing an entire campaign on such flawed assumptions eventually came back to haunt them. Romney and his allies not only didn’t understand their opponent, but they went out of their way to make sure that they misunderstood him, and in any kind of contest that is usually a recipe for failure.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/republicans-failed-to-understand-their-opponent/

36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Republicans Failed to Understand Their Opponent... From The American Conservative???? WTF? (Original Post) Whovian Nov 2012 OP
They still fail to understand. They turned the people of the nation into the GOP Skidmore Nov 2012 #1
EXACTLY. Joey Scar is on this morning... Volaris Nov 2012 #3
"his conservative media boosters didn’t have the firmest grip on political reality" geckosfeet Nov 2012 #2
Now that the election is over, some in the right-wing media are allowed to tell the truth. Ian_rd Nov 2012 #4
To be fair, TAC is one of the saner conservative publications nxylas Nov 2012 #19
"people who supported Romney for good, principled reasons" VWolf Nov 2012 #5
I noticed that too, and also looked for some examples. yardwork Nov 2012 #13
Two of my friends operate businesses that cater to the 1% Patiod Nov 2012 #31
Thats what happens when you live in the Fox bubble workinclasszero Nov 2012 #6
I know this is controversial... ewagner Nov 2012 #7
i might agree except Romney used racist appeals himself Danmel Nov 2012 #21
I knew we had won when Rmoney added his "Mr president, stop your campaign of lies and hatred" stopbush Nov 2012 #26
Yep! kentuck Nov 2012 #32
They only see what they want to see, irregardless of truth. nt inamatteroftime Nov 2012 #8
Regardless... Stand and Fight Nov 2012 #35
They understand this: Without the lies and propaganda, the defeat would have been far worse! Coyotl Nov 2012 #9
The "Jimmy Carter Syndrome" died an unlamented death. . . DinahMoeHum Nov 2012 #10
Romney trounced Empty-chair Obama! tanyev Nov 2012 #11
The "old man and the empty chair" will become a symbol for conservativism bubblism. Atypical Liberal Nov 2012 #17
Right - it's Obama's fault you lost Astraea Nov 2012 #12
Having opponents is the problem. aandegoons Nov 2012 #14
Truth from Republicons???? marions ghost Nov 2012 #15
Hate Media's Credibility Gap... KharmaTrain Nov 2012 #16
Saw this on RedState last night Patiod Nov 2012 #33
The American Conservative is a weird publication. They are anti-war and I think anti-Patriot Act too Puregonzo1188 Nov 2012 #18
"his campaign and his conservative media boosters" BumRushDaShow Nov 2012 #20
This: DocMac Nov 2012 #25
George Stupidfuckidous??? mikki35 Nov 2012 #27
Come on! stop blamg the media! Not even Fox is to be blamed rational_pi Nov 2012 #22
Exactly wrong! rock Nov 2012 #23
There is another less complicated explanation zeemike Nov 2012 #24
Misled on Iraq and misled on the 2012 election. Baitball Blogger Nov 2012 #28
The reason that the GOP failed to understand Obama nichomachus Nov 2012 #29
bullying is not a campaign strategy mercuryblues Nov 2012 #30
Read that...surprisingly good article democrattotheend Nov 2012 #34
Then again, I heard that Eric Holder had lots of U.S. attorneys on the ground. DCKit Nov 2012 #36

Skidmore

(37,364 posts)
1. They still fail to understand. They turned the people of the nation into the GOP
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:18 AM
Nov 2012

opponent and used our President as the lightning rod for all their resentment and hatred. The RW media tried to turn the President into the cartoon Democrat and flesh out a cartoon Republican son of privilege into the average man. The candidates became fictions in RW world and the people are still their opponents. The only options they have put forward is to try to dress up their stale ideas and old resentment in happy talk and new shiny words.

Volaris

(10,260 posts)
3. EXACTLY. Joey Scar is on this morning...
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:27 AM
Nov 2012

talking about David Frum's book again, and he COMPLETELY MISSED IT. I don't know if he really IS that stupid, or if he knows full well he is one of the COMIC's (COnservative Media Infotainment Complex--we're going to se if we can get that put in the dictionary here) who is that stupid on purpose, to keep himself rich at the expense of the Republican Popular Masses. He's blaming POLLSTERS, and NOT himself, Beck, Limbaugh, et al....

geckosfeet

(9,644 posts)
2. "his conservative media boosters didn’t have the firmest grip on political reality"
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:26 AM
Nov 2012

Or many other realities for that matter. This is what happens when your whole life is based on lies. It start to implode at some point. And you become extinct. Go rw teabaggers go!

Ian_rd

(2,124 posts)
4. Now that the election is over, some in the right-wing media are allowed to tell the truth.
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:48 AM
Nov 2012

It's a coward's version of honesty. Honesty is easy if you don't suffer any consequences for it.

nxylas

(6,440 posts)
19. To be fair, TAC is one of the saner conservative publications
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:02 AM
Nov 2012

Though I realise that's a bit like saying that Jack the Ripper is one of the less violent serial killers.

VWolf

(3,944 posts)
5. "people who supported Romney for good, principled reasons"
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:50 AM
Nov 2012

Ummm, yeah. And those principled reasons are????

Patiod

(11,816 posts)
31. Two of my friends operate businesses that cater to the 1%
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 11:52 AM
Nov 2012

One is a investment banker for the very rich, and one builds super-luxury condos.

Both think their income would have be better if Romney won and the very rich were to become even richer. And frankly, they're both probably right.

Not exactly "principled" but at least logical.

 

workinclasszero

(28,270 posts)
6. Thats what happens when you live in the Fox bubble
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:53 AM
Nov 2012

When you shut off all news media except Fox, all radio except Hate radio, all online discussion except Freakrepublic, redstate, etc, all people in your life who aren't hard right ideologues, pretty much all non white people and all churches that don't preach the gospel of Randian hate and greed.....this is what happens.

Reality comes up and kicks you in the nads!

But hey no worries. The teabag freaks are busily repairing the tear in their little Fox bubble at this moment. Go to freakrepublic if you can stomach it to see the proof.

The slightly more sane rethugs will try to sucker Latinos into their party with immigration reform but the racist base will have none of it, count on that!

I cant wait till the 14 elections! *GRIN*

ewagner

(18,964 posts)
7. I know this is controversial...
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 08:58 AM
Nov 2012

but I think Romney's campaign brain trust was so cynical that they knew if they made up a mythical Barack Obama record they could stoke the underlying racial discomfort with the President and defeat him no matter what efforts (including the incredible ground game) the President made.

Romney himself was an isolated CEO figure who made decisions based on two things: the words of his "Yes Men" and his Ego. He was fed the lies about the President as if they were the latest Quarterly P & Ls and he believed them like they came from a trusted, like-minded staff...

Maybe the candidate himself was unaware of the true strategy...to make this campaign all about race...at least in the sense that by stoking racial hatred through not-so-subtle dog whistles that they didn't have to have a coherent policy; didn't have to be consistant on the issues...etc..

This is one for the ages folks...it might be the end of the Republican Party as it has evolved for the last three decades or so.

Danmel

(4,892 posts)
21. i might agree except Romney used racist appeals himself
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:13 AM
Nov 2012

From saying no one had asked him for his birth certficate, to approving the false welfare ads.

stopbush

(24,376 posts)
26. I knew we had won when Rmoney added his "Mr president, stop your campaign of lies and hatred"
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:56 AM
Nov 2012

rhetoric to his stump speech. That kind of language is WAY over the line, but it showed that Rmoney was believing the Pretend Obama crap his handlers had dreamed up. As soon as he started saying those things I realized that there was a huge disconnect from reality, and that such a disconnect probably influenced Team Rmoney's abilities to read the polls honestly.

Which is why many of my DU posts throughout the summer and fall urged DUers not to buy the claims that the race was neck and neck. Rmoney was telegraphing his dependence on fantasy as a way to attack President Obama.

 

Coyotl

(15,262 posts)
9. They understand this: Without the lies and propaganda, the defeat would have been far worse!
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 09:17 AM
Nov 2012

So don't come crawling around now with the new meme that the lies and propaganda are not intentional, FCS!!

DinahMoeHum

(21,737 posts)
10. The "Jimmy Carter Syndrome" died an unlamented death. . .
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 09:23 AM
Nov 2012

on May 1, 2011; the day Obama and the Navy SEALs got Osama bin Laden.

 

Atypical Liberal

(5,412 posts)
17. The "old man and the empty chair" will become a symbol for conservativism bubblism.
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 09:48 AM
Nov 2012

An old, white guy mumbling incoherently at his mind's vision of his enemy seated in an empty chair.

This will become a symbol of living in the conservative bubble.

marions ghost

(19,841 posts)
15. Truth from Republicons????
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 09:39 AM
Nov 2012

One of the comments posted after the article:

"The whole of the right, long painting the President, and thus his following, as aliens, socialists (being somewhat to the right of Richard Nixon on most issues), and anti-life demons, not only misunderstood the President, but the nature of America, in which women really do make up more than half of the vote, in which no matter how many fans of racism are placed in the hands of its base, few really can get excited about preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest among us and corporate welfare for energy corporations and those exporting jobs overseas to drop a dime on their stockholders.

The country is largely made up of working people, people who have been over the past several decades moved out of the ownership society, by the very folks, who like Mitt Romney, claim to promote such, but refuse to really spell out how, and in fact, promote actual policies that in play have had the exact opposite effect.

The whole of the Republican strategy has been one of creating an identity base, a base grounded not in actual policies but propaganda, not only about the opposition leadership, but the folks that support that leadership."

KharmaTrain

(31,706 posts)
16. Hate Media's Credibility Gap...
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 09:44 AM
Nov 2012

While it's not apparent yet, there's a fallout going on within the great unhinged about how their "media" acted in the lead-up to Willard's disastrous blow-out. They truly didn't see it coming and now that the anger is subsiding, there are many, like York, who are asking how this could have happened. They're looking at their bubble and wondering how it didn't protect them from reality...how they felt victory despite all the polls and other data that was showing otherwise. A lot of this has to do with the right wing's hatred of any media that doesn't tell them what they want to hear. Bullshit Mountain and hate radio fed off this distrust to mislead their followers into the false perception that a majority hated President Obama as much as they did and there would be a "chick fil a" wave of "conservatives" showing up at the polls to sweep Willard and others to victory.

Right now the shock of being deceived by the "media" they created to tell them what they wanted to hear is settling in. The battle for the "soul" (if such a thing exists) of the rushpublican party has started as the "establishment" in the beltway try to demonize Faux and hate radio as the cause of last week's loss and hate radio, led by rushbo, attack back. I'm looking forward to a nice, long and nasty fight ahead...

Patiod

(11,816 posts)
33. Saw this on RedState last night
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 12:42 PM
Nov 2012

Amazingly schaudenfreude-tastic thread about the con artist IT consultants Romney hired who ripped the campaign off for millions and millions of dollars, and then delivered a breath-takingly crappy IT solution that crashed on election day.

The discussion was so tasty that I'd link to it, but it's no longer working - I think they've pulled it down.

Anyway, someone started criticizing Fox's numbers, and another conservative mounted a long, articulate defense of the network as a purely profit-making entertainment entity, not a get-Republicans elected/GOTV entity. He basically said that if they needed to lie about the potential outcome to keep viewers watching, so be it - they had no responsibility to the Party or the Party Faithful.
Chilling, but a fascinating look at the vulture mindset.

(I'd forgotten until I saw this blog for the first time last night that there ARE hard-core conservatives who can actually spell, write and construct coherent narratives. They need a little help with their thinking, but at least their wrong-headed arguments were understandable (unlike FR).)

Puregonzo1188

(1,948 posts)
18. The American Conservative is a weird publication. They are anti-war and I think anti-Patriot Act too
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:02 AM
Nov 2012

They are very supportive of Bradley Manning and Wikileaks. They also ran one of the best description of Brecht's view on theatre I've ever seen.

During the 2008 election they ran a cover implying Rudy Guilliani was a fascist.

I think they tend to support third party candidates, usually from the Constitution Party.

That's why they are being so critical of Fox News and Romney. This isn't an example of "Republicans" telling the truth.

I have no idea who reads this publication other than one relative I have. But even he seems to have turned for voting for war mongers in order to stop the big socialist government for which he works.

There are weird people who have weird views amongst us.

BumRushDaShow

(127,297 posts)
20. "his campaign and his conservative media boosters"
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:04 AM
Nov 2012

And by "conservative media boosters", we're not just talking about Faux Snooze or Limpballs, O'Liely, or Coultergeist.

We're talking ilk like Schmuck Toad, Wolf Blitzkrieg, Andrea Greenspan, George Stupidfuckidous, Bob Schitffer and essentially the depth and breadth of "the political media" period. They were ALL shilling for the "horse race" and bullshit like "Mittmentum". And this includes many of the pundits on MSNBC EXCEPT for Rev. Al, Martin Bashir, Krystal Ball, and Lawrence O'Donnell.

I.e., they ALL created the fictional candidate in the empty chair so cleverly illustrated by their celebrity spokesman.



And then the movie ended, the credits ran, the projector was turned off, the lights came on, and the ushers propped open the exit doors to their theater of the absurd.

DocMac

(1,628 posts)
25. This:
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:50 AM
Nov 2012

"And then the movie ended, the credits ran, the projector was turned off, the lights came on, and the ushers propped open the exit doors to their theater of the absurd".


That is good stuff.

rational_pi

(23 posts)
22. Come on! stop blamg the media! Not even Fox is to be blamed
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:28 AM
Nov 2012

This, the poor repugs "deceived by media/Romney Campaign" is horse shit.
They deceived themselves, they wanted to be deceived.
Many Repugs were actually mad at fox noise election coverage because the noise channel was "gloomy" and had realized that no amount of cheer leading would do.

zeemike

(18,998 posts)
24. There is another less complicated explanation
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 10:48 AM
Nov 2012

And that is that they intended to steal it and something went wrong.
That would explain a lot....for one how Rmoney could make gaff after gaff and it not concern the political machine at all....and his not having a concession speech as well
Had they been able to steal it those false polls they used to deceive us with would be evidence of the legitimacy of the election.

I know I know....CT....but I find it easier to believe than all of those political people were fooled by polls that were wrong....I think they are con men.

nichomachus

(12,754 posts)
29. The reason that the GOP failed to understand Obama
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 11:30 AM
Nov 2012

Was that they spent four years creating a phony Obama -- a straw man -- and that's who they ran against. Meanwhile, the real Obama cleaned their clock.

mercuryblues

(14,491 posts)
30. bullying is not a campaign strategy
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 11:51 AM
Nov 2012


I agree with Skidmore, the gNOp wasn't really running against Obama, they were running against the American people. If they were actually running against Obama there would have been no need for the lies and smears. The gNOp used bullying as part of their campaign stategy.

rmoney insulted the supposed 47%, he insulted Latinos, he insulted women, he insulted AA.
He threatened to take away Medicare, medicade, pro-choice, affordable health care.You can't blame rmoney for doing this. Bullying people has been effective through his whole life. Because of his wealth noone has dared to call him on it.

He was the perfect candidate for the gNOp. They believe compromise, compassion, facts and logic are signs of weakness. They believe if you tell a lie loud enough and long enough it becomes the truth for everyone. Why shouldn't they believe that? Look at the teabaggers. They hopped on their koch paid for buses, protested enmass against the ACA and the (bush) tax rate. They were holding signs that said "keep your government hands off my medicare". In 2010 teabag candidates were sent to DC, reinforcing the gNOp's belief system. Politicians felt secure enough in the environment they created to attack the citizens.

When it came down to crunch time, no one in the rmoney campaign wanted to give the Emporer the bad news. Not out of loyalty, out of fear.This began the the cycle of the campaign feeding their media outlets of a sure rmoney win. In turn, the media spread the dis-information. Like all lies it grew in stature. Within days it became a landslide for rmoney. The campaign then fed those reports to rmoney. The gNOp makes a habit of destroying people who interfer with their reality. Look at the way the tried to demonize Nate Silvers. Look what was done to Dan Rather. As long as you toe the repulican party line you are safe; no matter what.


The thing about bullying is that not everyone cowers in the face of the bully. Some people stand up to him. Just like the school yard bully, rmoney was shocked when people stood up to him. The same people he he thinks are less than him. And just like the school yard bully he won't learn compassion. He will just move on to his next class of victims, with a vengence and be sneakier about it.

democrattotheend

(11,605 posts)
34. Read that...surprisingly good article
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 01:04 PM
Nov 2012

I am glad to see that they admit that Obama is not Jimmy Carter and that Romney did not just lose; Obama won.

 

DCKit

(18,541 posts)
36. Then again, I heard that Eric Holder had lots of U.S. attorneys on the ground.
Mon Nov 12, 2012, 04:09 PM
Nov 2012

Aside from the fact that he's finally done something positive, this was actually important to everything we believe Democracy to be.

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