´sounds to me like she´s blaming the Tea Party.

He could have hammered harder about Benghazi and Obozo´s weak, leading from behind policies. He could have stood up for capitalism more. He should have bashed Obozo as hard as he did Newt, but he didn´t nor did McPain so the complaints are justified. The one thing that he shouldn´t have done was to promote his religion. That may have turned some people off. I don´t know why, if Mormons claim to be Christians, they are talking about the saving blood of Christ rather than a religion. The Bible sure doesn´t promote religion!

He could have been tough without being mean. He muzzled Paul Ryan -- did you hear Paul talk at all about the $16 trillion deficit after he became VP like he used to?

Ann also told us pretty much to get in line and shut up and vote for Romney. She also thinks Chris Christie is a god.

She is quickly lapsing into Peggy Noonan-style irrelevance,

More on Romney and the future of the GOP, absolute Must See: http://blip.tv/davidhorowitztv/bill-whittle-6444929

Demographics and Demo-cheating are mainly why Romney lost. In 5 to ten years there will not be enough people who are connected to traditional American principles and values left to save the culture...Obama´s transformation will be complete.

A new strategy must be adopted or single party rule in perpetuity. That´s all.

Ann called it: "We´ll nominate Mitt Romney, and we´ll lose." The differences between Reagan and Romney couldn´t be more stark: Reagan became a conservative when conservatism was losing on all fronts and then fought for decades to give conservatism its greatest victories. Romney started presenting himself as a conservative when he began running for the GOP presidential nomination. Reagan articulated his conservative positions and brought the country to share them. Mitt rewrote his political playbook to position himself as a conservative, but he was never particularly good at defending it. Reagan was rhetorically gifted and politically adroit; Romney was neither. Reagan was a sincere conservative who sometimes compromised when necessary to govern; Romney was a "severe" conservative with no record of conservatism in government at all. Reagan authored the Eleventh Commandment ("Speak no ill of a fellow Republican"); Romney deliberately and viciously attacked his conservative rivals as men while failing to engage their ideas. Reagan won twice. Romney may not have been the problem, but he certainly wasn´t the solution.

Ann has a very bad track record.

She´s smart ...

... she should learn.

Otherwise we are all screwed.

Admit your mistakes and learn from them, Ann.

Who next?

Better be Rubio/Palin.

Or Martinez.

I suppose she expects us to believe her.

As far as I´m concerned, Coulter makes her money off the established political system, like many other pundits on ´both sides´ (is there really still two parties???), and she´s just ensuring that she won´t have to get out of her comfort zone and intellectually grapple with the reality of our situation.

The Tea Party is not to blame for Romney´s loss. Besides widespread voter fraud the Republican Party has been in the process of willfully shedding its conservative base in a bid to gain Latinos and other groups. This will continue and they are probably willing to lose several election cycles in order to get rid of the ball-and-chain conservatives. So be it.

Romney needed 61% of the white vote to win and he only got 59%. End of story. That´s the election in a nutshell. The next election the Republican will need to get about 63% of the white vote...and so on. I can´t figure out why Romney didn´t do better in states like Iowa and New Hampshire. I thought tempramentally and culturally he would have been the type of Republican who would appeal in these middle of the road overwhelmingly white states. The only conclusion I can come to as to why he didn´t carry these states is the Republican brand is so damaged because of the GW Bush years.

[1] It´s not enough to promise to repeal Obama Care. The Republican Party needs to craft a health care platform. And it has to be better than the working poor can go to the emergency room.

[2] The Republican Party has to tell women that they won´t repeal Roe vs. Wade. Otherwise, they lose the majority of women votes.

Obama backed the Muslim Brotherhood over the American ally Mubarak in Egypt.

Obama backed the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Libya.

The ONLY ´Arab Spring´ uprising Obama wouldn´t support....

....was the Green Revolution in Iran, which sought to overthrow Ahmadinijad and his terrorism-exporting Mullahcracy.

Why wouldn´t Mitt call him out on it?

We´ll never know.

Mitt was just another milque-toast, mush-mouthed "moderate" who was disdainful of real conservatives and hostile toward the TEA Party.

Stuff it, Ann.

Same goes for your ill-considered crush on that Jersey jackass Chris Christie.

We´re sick of Democrat Light.

Give us someone who is actually PROUD to be a conservative.

Well, well Annie Rove, YOU told us Romney was the only guy who could win. We didn´t want him. He lost. Atta girl, blame us.

#10 and many like him are advocating that Republicans hew further left in order to win future elections.

Uh, what do you think they´ve been doing?

Because this is the line that the Republican elites are selling, the party will continue its drift left. And, they will continue to lose relevancy (and elections) until they are completely absorbed by the Democrats. They are already well down that road.

Let the Whigs have what they so earnestly desire.

True…Romney is not an ideologue...never claimed to be, but he lives conservative values, unlike some others in the GOP who just talk the talk. (BTW, Reagan was not perfect, and his personal life and history were not always exemplary.) Maybe I´m just a sore loser, but I’m still seething over millions of Republicans who did not vote…self-righteous Ron Paul supporters, anti-Mormon believers, and die-hard right-wingers. There will never be a perfect candidate. But isn’t it close enough to have one that is smart and dedicated and honest and capable and experienced and patriotic and on the right side of most issues? In lieu of Barack Obama?

In response to Reply 13 - Posted by: Gretchen

You ask, "Uh, what do you think they´ve been doing?"...they, meaning the last 2 Republican candidates.

They´ve been losing by following their adviser´s advice not to say anything specific. That will get you just enough votes to lose. The Democrats win votes by telling the people that the Republicans are the party of rich white men and religious fundamentalists. They accuse the Republicans of being racist and poised to take away women´s power over their own bodies. The Republicans have to come up with a practical health care platform, and convince women they won´t dictate morality.

Which is it, then, following bad advice and being non-specific, or not dictating morality and having a healthcare plan like Obama?

As stated: the Republican elites want the conservatives out of the party. They will have their desire. And they will continue to lose.

Winning elections is not about being the same as your opponent. And that is why the Democrats will rule for the foreseeable future.

I grant you the Democrats control the narrative, but in the end, the Republicans are just as big government as the Democrats, and there is less and less difference among them. A pox on both houses.

Did everyone posting comments on this thread actually READ the article?

She is most certainly NOT "blaming the Tea Party". What she says here is absolutely true. You can dislike her all you want, and you can dislike what she´s saying, but if you´re going to refute her argument, MAKE ONE OF YOUR OWN and take on the facts that she presents. Otherwise you´re no better than a liberal dunce.

I´ve always been a fan of Ann´s and own most of her books. Funny thing is, she´s made millions by advocating that we call the left what they are which is anti-American, but asks us to just sit back and let Karl Rove and little Willie Kristol take care of things for us.
Rather than buying her latest book, I´ll be shopping for survival handbooks, instead.

If we ever want to win another election, we have to stop scaring our legal Hispanic citizens by rhetorically lumping them in with the illegals and threatening to load them all up and send them back to Guadalajara. We have to show them that a GOP conservative government will give them the same opportunities to achieve as anyone else and that we welcome them.

The illegals have to be addressed legally as we secure our borders. That´s a whole different matter and there are many ways to fix that problem.

Then we have to stop letting the wackos of our party (you know who they are and they aren´t limited to Akin and Mourdock) define who we are. Primary candidate vetting, anyone???

We should get back to the original purpose of the tea party movement, lower taxes and smaller government. Those principals appeal to everyone. Leave the social issues for another day and place.

Too many of us are guided by the views of personalities who don´t really have us or the nation´s welfare in mind when they rant and rave and spotlight-hog. We have to think for ourselves and resist the temptation of cultish devotion to anyone.

And, we have to ensure the security of the vote.

Thank you, Governor Romney, for your valiant effort. We should have done better by you.

One example stuck out to me. Mitt had "should have let gm go bankrupt" hung around his neck. I never heard him explain to the average American dunce the difference between chapter 11 and 13. On this issue people needed to know that he was not advocating dissolution of the company ala hostess. He was not a strong advocate for his positions, and was a lousy advocate in general. What he was was b..o..r..i..g. That said, we have an America which is lost, wrapped up in greed and self-satisfaction, and too lazy or stupid to educate themselves on issues. For the most part, they are, as I have said many times, proving themselves incapable of self-governance.

Principles, not principals.

You can stop feeling guilty now, Ann. Romney was definitely not the problem, and your early backing of him was not a mistake. But riddle me this, Ann: in the first debate, why did Romney use BO as a dog uses a chew toy, to see his poll numbers skyrocket, then ease off on BO in the second and third debates, to see his lead atrophy? Who decided upon that strategy?

Like most overpaid TV personalities, you´ve lost some of your vision in the glare of the bright lights. Add that to your list of mistakes that Reagan did not make.

Any volunteer who worked with the Romney field people knows it was an awful campaign populated by arrogant kids. Based on that alone, the man could not win. Our fearless leader, the County Chairman, took matters into his own hands and we beat the stuffing out of Obie.

Ann has been a Romney cheerleader for a long time now. Sadly, She has fallen into the beltway establishment camp. They have sure done a great job for the country, haven´t they?
No structure can stand if you drive out the base, and thats what the rinos are increasingly doing. Putting a Cadillac hood ornament on a Yugo doesn´t make it one.
Conservatives (read Tea Party) are ignored or ridiculed, yet their votes are expected.

Let´s just find common ground within our own party and quit blaming each other. We MUST learn to present a united GOP front if we intend to ever win any major political office again. We can do our bickering behind closed doors, like the Demos do so well.
I am sickened by BHO class warfare everywhere I turn. Who needs radio talkers to turn Pubbies against each other by branding those who don´t 100% agree as "elitist." IntraGOP warfare is just plain childish and stoopid. Why are we alienating our closest friends?

The uninformed voters or the just plain stupid ones are the accountable people for the devastation of my country. The later group seems to think they can poke all kinds of holes in our ship and it will not sink. They see no correlation between spending far more than we are taking in. Their solution? Go steal someone´s money. I voted for Romney because he was the lesser of two evils and I believe truly loves my country. I heard the reasons people voted against him....and I´m still trying to avoid those people. Romney was not the problem...and insane body of voters was the problem.

speaking the Truth in Love here: Abortion not legal in the second or third trimester except in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother and no federal funding for abortion. That´s were the people who vote are. If you want to win elections, you will try to win the most votes. Would like to see Republicans vet their candidates by asking "Would you rather be the most correct candidate in the field or win the general election?" Anybody who doesn´t want to win should be out in the primaries.

Bingo #5. There was no other reason why Mitt lost other than we´re simply outnumbered by the takers. If this were the same country from the eighties Mitt would have won standing on one leg with one eye closed. But the deck has been stacked, probably going back to 08. Now it´s confirmed. Mitt was a great candidate and now we´re headed for that iceberg full steam ahead.

Being a Romney/GOP/RNC Establishment pom-pom waver means you never have to say "my bad" because its never your fault.

Romney lost because of the reasons many here said he would lose. You cannot help people nor party that is incapable of admitting being wrong.
Its wasted time, effort, and energy to engage in conversation with them.

Got Tea?

Romney´s skin color was the problem. Discount the "skin color" votes and he won.

The main difference between Liberals and Conservatives…the one reason we Conservatives didn´t win an easy race…is simply that the liberals back their candidates, no matter what. Blue dresses, corruption scandals, naked pictures on iPhones, obvious and serious racism…none makes any difference. They vote the Democrat ticket with enthusiasm and total loyalty. Their candidates behave as complete and utter fools….and they like it. Loyalty to The Party is paramount.
Meanwhile, back in the Conservative tent, we are ´not sure´ about the Mormons, we won´t vote for anyone who is for/against abortion, our candidate is too/not enough conservative, our candidate will/won´t reach across the aisle, our candidate came from a liberal state, our candidate may be for gun control…….on and on. And our response to these many doubts? We stay home on election day…or throw our vote away on a third party candidate. Might as well vote for Micky Mouse.
Waiting for the ´perfect candidate´ that fits all these parameters gave us another four years of Democrat h**l, and may be the direct cause of the collapse of the country. But good for us. We held to our principles and didn´t settle for a candidate that was less than our idea of the perfect candidate.

Amen, #31. Perhaps, #29 will open her ears.

I blame the ignorant American voter.

As depressed and disgusted as I was from the election results, I get even more so when I read the ignorant, superficial comments from posters on this forum, who blame Romney for his defeat.
Knock it off, knuckleheads. Romney was an excellent candidate, who would have made a wonderful president.
Any thoughtful, observant conservative would know that the primary 3 reasons Obama won were:
1. The Leftwing Media- 24/7 fawning media coverage of Obama, suppression of any news, facts or gaffes that would detract from Obama, and continuous attacks on Romney for Bain, his dog, his bullying of some kid in grade school, his religion, etc.
2. The Stupidity and Selfishness of the Electorate- Stupid, uninformed voters believed the Leftwing Media without question. The selfish had been bought and bribed and voted to continue their food stamps, medicaid, welfare, earned income credits, zero tax payments, etc. Included in this category are the unions.
3. Election Theft- There is no doubt that in key swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina that there was massive election fraud. 100% voting in 59 districts in Philadelphia, comprising 19,507 voters--all for Obama--doesn´t just happen.
4-10- Other factors included massive illegal fundraising by Obama from offshore sources, Blacks voting for their skin color, military voter suppression, propaganda in our education systems, religious bias against Mormons, etc.

It is amazing that Romney was able to make the election so close, given how the deck was stacked against him.
So stop blaming Romney, and look forward to the pleasure of seeing these wealthy media, Hollywood, ignorant liberal, and university types weep and gnash their teeth when their tax bill cometh. Look forward to more union job losses like Hostess. Look forward to the bankruptcy of NYT and WP.

You´ll never convince me that Mitt really lost that one.

Next election, let´s remember that the "refs" (the media) already cast their lot with the Democrats.

A Republican needs to run a two-front war, one against the Democrats and one against the media.

And although I lean towards the tea party side of the aisle, somebody had better get the word to ijidits like Akin and Mourdock that those media folks are waiting to play "gotcha" and get a sound bite or something they can twist into saying that Republicans are pro-rape or something like that, whatever the 2014/2016 version of the gotcha game will be.

Georgie Porgie ABC News Pudding and Pie Stepinngdeepin it started the game with the "Republicans-want-to-take-away-your-contraception-abortion-ice-cream-sundaes" line back in the primaries.

Next time he or some other RAT infested media whore starts that slop, tell them to go straight to h-e-double-hockey-sticks.

Because Dear Leader(US) and his minions won this election on (1) demographics and (2) making up phony issues like that. I still think we can beat the first but not sure we can beat the combination of the two.

#34 is spot on, listen up #29.

If you have any doubt about the gifts that Obama takes from us and gives to his dependency base read twitchy this morning. Then again it´s thanksgiving and I don´t want anyone wretching.
Extra money on my food stamps , that´s love yo ... #Obama

— Buddah(@BUDDHAdaBEAUTY) November 18, 2012

I think there are multiple explanations for the loss - no single reason. But perhaps the biggest is that Dems effectively portrayed the choice as between the devil you know vs. the devil you don´t know.

Thank you, this was a no brainer for anyone with a lick of sense...and why are we allowing the Loonie Left, the Lame Stream News Media, and rino´s to define our talking points; unfortunately we are going to have to give them a taste of their own sicko medicine!

I was going to make all the points #34 did, but he said it better. Since November 7, 2012 I´ve stated that we lost for 3 reasons: deception, fraud, and ignorance. We must address those problems if we want to win.

What #17 said. It appears more than a few have not read the article but still presume to tell everyone else what Ann Coulter was trying to say. And thank you #34 for putting into words, what many of us are feeling now that the Election is over. IMO, It´s a shame that some who may not really care what happened will continue to blame Mitt Romney. Personally, I am past weary of the GOP circular firing squad and wish it would disband forever..

#34 Nails It! Kudos to JimS!

#34.

Responding to Reply 16 - Posted by: Gretchen, 11/22/2012 5:39:51 AM (No. 9028851)

It´s not an either or thing. It´s both. And the elites, whoever they are, do not want conservatives out of the party. That´s paranoid. What´s needed is a party with a bigger tent, for winning elections. However, until the Republicans can construct a platform that addresses health care beyond something other than the working poor can use the emergency room, they lose the working poor. And until the Republicans can assure women that Washington won´t tell them if they can have an abortion or not, the Republicans will come up short with the woman vote. They can´t afford that when the Republicans don´t have the black vote, or the Latino vote, or the Asian vote. The tent has to have a bigger footprint if we´re to keep the extreme leftists out of the White House. Losing this election is a disaster.

There is no rational explanation to Romney receiving 3 million fewer vots than McCain except election theft. Romney was not the perfect candidate but my gut tells me that the American people overall do not believe that this president is worthy of the office and that he loves this country and is doing the rights things. No. And those who think Romney was not pure enough, --not enough of them sat home. I believe this was God´s will but I do NOT believe that He has lost the hearts of the majority. So we are in for nightmarish times. But they stole this thing, no doubt in my mind. Our polling places run on an honor system, for the most part and are easily corrupted. Electronic voting is fraught with possibilities for fraud. It was not hard for them.

#34 is correct - what to do about election fraud?

Mega kudos to posters 14, 17,20, 25, 26, 31, 34 and all Pubbies - there are no rinos, no TRUE C0NSERVATIVES, and just who among the critics are perfect? Ann, Karl speak the truth and no matter if you disagree, you do not vote or sit on fannies at home, you get out and vote for our candidate. We are governed by someone who thinks he is a king. Happy now?

Though I was agreeably surprised and encouraged near the end of the campaign, I was always among those who feared the Romney campaign was being mismanaged from the start. I think he lost because of this, not because of who or what he was. I think if the campaign had been conducted aggressively and proactively, as it began to be near the end, he might well have won. I blame the campaign managers for the loss. So do a lot of other people. It simply never looked or sounded like Romney was really running for president until the last few months of the race. He let the Obama slime machine defame and define him for months and months, playing some kind of political rope-a-dope when he kept being body slammed by character assassination, rich guy status, evil jobs killer and tax avoider, liar, etch-a-sketch, and all the rest of the mud slung at him. I never understood why his campaign managers just encouraged him to stand there and take it and to sling nothing of substance back.

Romney lost, in my opinion, because he did not start to campaign seriously until it was too late. Why, I have no idea. Incompetent campaign advisers is my best guess. This does not mean that a plurality or Americans, those who voted for Obama, are not clueless dopes,that the news media is not hopelessly corrupt and partisan, or that the Obama-Democrat gang are not unscrupulous Alinskyite thugs, or that the insane and self-destructive Republican primaries were not a gigantic waste of energy and momentum. That is all too true. It is not, however, why Romney lost. Romney lost because for some reason yet to be explained, he did not mount a serious campaign.

I still believe in the American people.

Romney is a decent guy who would have made a decent president, and far better than Zero. If Romney was not elected, he didn´t make his case. Period.

Ann Coulter needs a year on the beach at Maui with no pencils and no phones.

Those who pile on Romney for being insufficiently purist never suggest which of the original primary candidates they believe would have done better than Romney. I like Gingrich, but he has a boxcar full of baggage.

The conservatives--God bless them--don´t seem to appreciate that many voters are fearful of their personal financial future. And when you´re fearful, you vote for the guy who is most generous in handing out the benefits--just in case you´re gonna need them yourself.

In the end however, I truly believe the election was won by fraud in the swing states, especially via electronic voting machines and vote tallying, not to mention the perennial issue of military votes not being retrieved.

arrogance is not flattering. Cant really respect her point of view any more

also, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Dole, McCain, Romney, the Bushes. ANy pattern here?

#29 got it right.

GOP is now the WHIG Party. Study history.

The delusional and paranoid sure are out in force on this post. How predictible.
#1. Romney had been running for POTUS since ´08 yet never topped 50% for one obvious reason. A majority of voters neither liked nor wanted him as he reminded most of them that he was just another Bush w/o the fractured English. Reality.
#2. The voter fraud canard is too stupid for words. Virtually every battleground state had an R Gov, Sec´y of State, Attny Gen plus Assembly and Senate yet the D´s stole the election. Really?????????????
#3. As a Mass lefty, Romney surrounded himself w/the likes of Stevens, Schmidt, Murphy etc, losers all.
#4. The so called ´debates´ were media bs and didn´t mean squat to working class voters.
#5. Blaming the voters is about as sensible as companies who blame their customers when they file for bankruptcy.
Lucius Accius thundered from the Roman Senate, "Let them (Carthage) hate as long as they fear". Who feared feckless Romney who intensified his grin every time the D´s kicked him in the shins? Wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time = loser.