The media-created distractions for these low information voters - like The War on Women - don´t help any either.

Mitt Romney´s biggest mistake was hiring all of John McCain´s loser consultants who only understand how to take candidates´ money and lose elections.

They would not let Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney talk about the Medicare/Medicaid, and Social Security. When Paul Ryan first joined the campaign he was going great guns through Florida and suddenly stopped? I wonder why?

Mitt Romney had a great first debate and dropped away during the second and third. I wonder why.

In June when I heard Mitt Romney had hired all those loser consultants and was listening to the people at the RNC, I was worried. These people are dumber than dirt except when comes from taking money from a candidate. That goes for Karl Rove, too. They are all losers!

Rude post to follow.

Hmm. People who swim in the broader culture are...idiots? Say what? So to win, all candidates need do is scare the idiots that their stuff is in jeopardy? Kiss it goodbye, Gracie.

Since Steyn´s illness his brain cells take regular sabbaticals.

Pity.

90 million voted in 2010. 125 million in 2012. And the turnout in 2010 was high for an off year election. The media has too much control over the debate, but we as a party lack discipline. The GOP doesn´t seem to focus on what should be it´s core, freedom, free markets, security, fiscal sanity. Too many candidates get suckered into making fools of themselves.

I would like to respectfully disagree with Mr. Steyn. I think Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan ran a campaign brimming with bold ideas and a vision for a revitalized and strong America. When you have approximately 1/2 of the population in this country on the government dole...a message of personal responsibility is mighty hard to sell. When you have the media so in the tank for Obama that they are not reporting things unfavorable to Obama I don´t see how you can blame Mitt Romney for that. He is a good man that would have provided leadership this country is desperately missing.I was very proud of our candidate and of the field of candidates we had to choose from he was by far and away the right man to carry the republican banner at this time. America blew it...not Mitt Romney.

Just one more thing...perhaps the RNC/GOP would do well to step it up and fix some of the flaws in our voting system state by state. Get rid of those machines that changed Romney votes to Obama votes. Get rid of the open primaries. Again..this is not something that was Mitt Romney´s fault. We (the GOP) let him down not the other way around.

I said after the election and I still say the same thing. Behind closed doors with his wonderful wife, Mitt kicks himself for not dumping those loser campaign consultants. After he secured the nomination, he should have taken absolute control of the campaign. He listened to the hierarchy instead. He KNOWS how to lead and get BIG things done. He could have run a great big ideas, specific solutions-oriented, Katie-bar-the-door, blunt, paint the disaster picture of the second Obama term campaign. When we had the first debate, the man proved he had it in him. Then, the stupid power brokers of the party pulled it back. It was so obvious that the country was yearning for a real barn burner from the challenger. How on earth could such a good smart man actually listen to this bunch of elite nincompoops with such a losing track record?

Not that it matters but, thanks to the media, Romney spent most a lot of his time on his heels playing defense. Anyone remember all the coverage of those huge crowds he was drawing around the country? Neither do I. There was something big going on across America and the media made sure you didn´t see it.

Steyn has been sick? And I agree with #8, et al.

The people who stayed home because Romney wasn´t perfect enough for them are to blame. No one should have had to "get out the vote" with so much at stake.

People were all over how Romney and Ryan had large, energized crowds and Obama didn´t. I guess that energy didn´t translate to getting off of one´s behind and gettng to the polls.

Nice to hear it from Steyn, cuz it´s true.

He bet the house on this none-of-the-above campaign, and he lost. It now also seems his consultants couldn´t even count, and certainly couldn´t develop software.

Which means Romney himself was never more than an empty suit living on his name.

Which STILL makes him more qualified than Obama, but sadly I can see why some voters might not think so.

Agreed, #6. We´ll be kicking ourselves in a few months when the crash begins. Mitt was ideally suited for the job. I do, however, think Mitt pulled his punches by cooling Paul Ryan and the SS/Medicare/big ideas. It was obvious in debates #2 and #3 when he held his tongue so as not to appear too much like a "mean Republican."

I would like to know how much of Romney´s total campaign funds were spent in the primaries.

The Republicans lost because:
1) there was fraud on a massive level.
2) we eat our own - if a candidate doesn´t fit in with 100% of the beliefs of some Republicans, they will stay home on Election Day and pout.
3. the Catholic Church does not unequivocally state that voting for a dem is tantamount to allowing abortions (and is therefore a mortal sin).
4. the Republicans spend too much money in the primaries going against people who have no chance of winning and ripping each other to shreds.
5. I have no earthly idea why Jewish people pull the dem lever.
6. blacks are the most racist people there are.

With all due respect, Mr. Steyn, what a bunch of BS. Like we really needed “existential questions”? Mitt Romney tried to stay focused on the “big picture” but I suspect most people were’nt really paying attention because after months of campaigning they were still asking the same dumb questions.

God works in mysterious ways. This election result happened for the best.

Mitt and Paul would have been a great team but I think, in the end, it will be okay.

It is always easy to be an armchair critic. The 47%, the give me, give me, give me generation that was practically paid to go vote for Obama apparently paid off.
Add that to the crooked voting. i.e., Florida having 175K registered voters and having 234K voting. Precints in PA. that absolutely no one voted for Romney shows a lot of fraud was going on.

You can´t beat Santa Claus.

Constructive criticism.

Of course, some will consider Steyn a Romney basher, and attempt to marginalize him by attacking him personally as they do other conservative voices.

OP, you are right about the moral decay in society. It´s sad that a mention of anything pertaining to the word of our Creator is considered offensive and "preachy" to some.

There are those who continue shifting the source of the standards of right and wrong from the Creator to man. Nothing good can come of that. Jeremiah the prophet said long ago, "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)

The standards of right and wrong, good and evil, come from God. Those nations who forgot that, or rejected it, suffered the consequences. Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee ... ."

Would Rubio in place of Ryan made THE difference...I don´t know. I felt Romney chose Ryan on the basis of who would help him turn the economy around. So, Mr. Steyn, I think Romney DID focus on the big issues. The economy, the debt, the budget, jobs.........

I´m still sick...we had a chance...a chance.

Romney did not call Obama out and use the ´S´ word-Socialism- one time.

His handlers and klingons told him it would alienate the independents and moderates- what a crock of baloney.

Had he done so, we would have been able to hear Obama stutter and splutter from here in the Great Frozen North.

Now the same idiots are ready to push Jeb Bush upon for another big loss.

Not true. Romney ran a spirited and dignified campaign. But he was running not only against Obama, but also MSM and voter fraud. Night after night, Leno and Letterman, for example, hammered often flase implications against Romney but not Obama. Then there is the blatant stunt Candy pulled. And she still has her job!

Although I was not a big Romney fan, I found him to be far more honest, presidential, intelligent, and experienced than Obama, who makes gaffe after gaffe and is way over his head. Also, Romney does not hate this country.

The brilliant and clever Steyn agrees with what I posted on the other thread - - namely that Milquetoast Milt was playing prevent defense with scared money - - two strategies certain to lose.

Reagan always played BIG - - and won BIG - - and the Pubbies still hate him for it. They´re much more comfortable losing - - and will continue to do so.

Agreed that Mitt´s Shining Moment was the first debate and then not escaping the "Old Republican Eastern Establishment handlers" stalled any momentum. It was very obvious the dem-rat plan>victimize the poor at the hand of the rich, pander to the minorities, create a false sense of what fairness is, and then appeal to the young females that Daddy000 will protect their proclivity to pursue activities that lead to their ruin. As Leo Durocher said--Nice Guys finish last!...and we did.

Romney/Ryan did a good job and bless them! The culture and the MSM have become too much to overcome.

I hope the GOP learns that abosolute NOTHING is off the table in future elections. We can´t let any slanderous lie stand. Our candidate needs a team of quick responders out there challenging every lie the media and dems (redundant, I know) throw out there. Too many times Romney´s team let them stand.

Ohio was besieged all summer about Romney & Bain shutting down companies and not caring about the little guys. There were NO ads responding.

I agree with everyone who believes that Romney was a good and honorable man. He and Ryan ran a dignified and meaningful campaign and would have been perfect for a country that would still have maintained an iota of decency and common sense. Sadly, our republic has fallen to unimaginable lows. If anyone thinks that Reagan himself could win in a landslide majority now, they don´t understand the cultural and demographic changes occurring on a daily basis.

#14...do you know anyone who listens to the Catholic church when it comes to politics? Neither do I, and I´m a cradle Catholic.

Mitt and Paul did just fine, and I was a very tough sell on Mitt. The American electorate has changed, and not for the better. I´d be willing to bet that Reagan would have lost to that phony Santa Claus. A message is lost on those who choose to ignore it, or are too ignorant to understand it. Their day of reckoning is coming. Soon.

If it makes us feel better, we can still assert that conservatism didn´t lose in 2008. Sorry Rush, but it did in 2012.

I was passionate about unseating Obama and taking the Senate but lukewarm on Romney as a candidate. Many now defending Romney used to wonder on this forum why his campaign wasn´t addressing core conservative issues. Others now defending Romney were dead certain that he should only focus on the economy. Many, many posts were made driving this home. Steyn is correct in his characterization of Romney´s campaign; however, the full quote was: “Mitt Romney, who is a good man, an honorable man … fought a small, shriveled campaign. … What was the point of picking Paul Ryan as your running mate and not fighting a big-picture election on where America is? At least then, if we had fought a big picture campaign, we could have at least say we had lost with honor. … The next time, we deserve a candidate who fights a big national campaign on the existential questions facing the United States.”

The line was drawn between the free market and creeping communism but Romney failed to make the distinction. If he knew better but followed the advice of political consultants, then he was not ready to occupy the office anyway.

The Obama win cannot, or should not, be reduced to a single cause. Elections are seldom that simple. This one certainly wasn´t. It is doubtful whether any Republican could have overcome the combination of forces against him(or her). Never in my lifetime have I seen such a blatantly partisan media and the corresponding failure to investigate and report the facts about Obama. Younger voters have been systematically indoctrinated into liberalism/Leftism/statism/collectivism since pre-K. Life has been easy, safe, and secure. Never in the history of the world have so many had it so good for so long. It has long been known that advanced civilization tends to confuse its members and make sissies of them. They lose the ability and the will to cope with adversity, they regress to an infantile stage, they take what they have for granted and complain and whine and demand more for less. That is the path we are on.

That said, I felt until the very last weeks -after the first debate- that the Romney campaign was one of the worst I have ever seen. There didn´t even seem to BE a campaign until the closing weeks. It was too little, too late. Romney just let Obama Inc. slime and slander and assassinate his character for MONTHS, making either no response or a feeble, impotent one. He refused to counterattack on any of Obama´s grave vulnerabilities. A badly run campaign was not the only factor in his loss, which may have been inevitable in any case. But we should not forget than this was a poorly run campaign. It must never, ever happen again.

The deck stacking against the repubs has been completed. Evident in 08, confirmed in 2012. In a free society, the uneducated, stupid, uniformed, racist, lazy can also vote. The dems are great in getting them out. A friend has an interesting perspective. If Mitt won then these people would just go away for a while. With the help of God, maybe now they will be exposed for what they are and forever be rejected in the future. The problem with that is millions deserve what they voted for and millions, like me, don´t deserve it.

Lousy campaign with no convictions. Afraid of controversy. This is the republican mainstream. There´s nothing new here.

Once more for the shriveled ugly mouthed mark, Coloradois a swing state and when Mitt was here, he filled the stadium - bammy got zilch in the way of an audience and had to bribe a few young people to sit there and listen to his drivel. Mitt did very well and I was one who was not sure of him, but when I saw him with his wife and kids and how intelligent, gentle and informed he was, it was a done deal. Stolen election.

Mitt Romney had the same problem this year as he had in 2008 when he was defeated in the primaries by John McCain: A large number of Republicans don´t like him. Probably because he set up a socialized-medicine program when he was the governor of Massachusetts.

The difference this year was that too many Conservative candidates during the primaries split the Conservative vote, and Karl Rove and his friends poured huge amounts of money into Mitt Romney´s campaign coffers, which got him through difficult primaries -- only to emerge as a presidential candidate whom most Republicans still didn´t like and ended up not voting for.

If Mitt Romney and Karl Rove stay out of politics in 2016, we can win.

All the posters here bring up valid points; ones that have been articulated in these threads over the last few weeks. I. too have been caught up in the anger and blame of it all. Despite the heated arguments, I suspect most LDotters still have more in common than differences.
#16 though, brings up a point I have been pondering since the primaries and I have not seen it here yet. On a spiritual level, there are no accidents. We are given situations in our life to deal with to learn something, or to prove that we have learned. We cannot con the teacher. Our genuine actions and reactions are being watched and evaluated. It may lead to more lessons later, or if we get it right we may not have to do it again.
This is a chance to clutter our souls with even more garbage, or maybe to let the evil go on by and not let it wreck us.
I guess your individual belief systems should be your guide. My Wiccan perspective thinks there will be more tests to come. We shouldn´t give this one too much energy.

Obama figured out how to win, he started with a group of states that he was going to carry easily and did not bother to campaign there. He identified which states were likely to be swing states in his re-election and left his 2008 campaign organizations there in place. Romney is a business man, not a politician and he got defeated by maybe the best political team we have seen in our lifetime. Obama was not an easy sell to America but give his team credit they managed. I think that Bill Clinton traded his campaigning for Obama´s political team in 2016. Hillary will be back.

"more uniformed voters turned out in force"

what kind of uniforms?

We did not lose big. One national election is all. Republicans picked up many local elections.

What Dick Cheney said...to the whole bloody lot of them.
And a strong letter to follow!

More conservatives....less insultants.

One additional thought - to all those saying, "I hope the GOP learns a lesson and does x next election, etc., etc., etc."...give it up. The GOP is not going to learn a lesson. The GOP hates the Tea Party people (although we supported Romney better than the elites who forced him on us did). I have finally realized that the party leaders have no particularly strong desire to win. They are perfectly happy being the minority party, and all their salaries, benefits, cocktail parties, country club golfing events, etc., stay just the same. I have ZERO confidence in the GOP and ZERO anticipation that its leaders will grow a spine and fight for the foundations of this country.

Armywife85, you give me some small hope that out there somewhere there are americans who actually have brains! The only way Mitt Romney could have won was if he engaged in a giveaway contest with Barack Obama. That´s not what conservatives or libertarians stand for.

I´m sick of all the bad mouthing Romney. He is an honorable gentleman who gave it all he had. Maybe his advisors were too cautious. And Ryan too deferential to VP plugs in their debate But Romney and his wonderful family is aces in my book. God love them.

Kudos #8 and #31 - The GOP consultants must bear the blame for yet another lost election. They have done diddly squat to improve the voting process and ensure its freedom from fraud. They interfere in campaigns with their loser ideas. They will not get behind the best candidates especially when allowing the socialists to run the debates. Personally I think the GOP[democrat lite] should fold and allow a party that actually stands for something i.e. conservative principles and the Constitution, to replace it.
I agree that Mitt is a good man but he ran a lackluster campaign given that he was running against four years of well financed strategy crooks. He needed a raging fire in his belly and exercised his right to tell the establishment consultants to take a long hike.

No doubt Romney´s excuse mongers will incessantly tell us what a kind, decent, honorable and dignified chap he is w/oddles of breeding, good manners and proper schooling. So what; he lost convincingly to arguably our worst POTUS ever. Lord Acton astutely observed; "Good men are never great". Churchill was a mean and ugly drunk who villified his subordinates in public but he knew how to win. Dudley-Do-Right was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time w/a predictible outcome. Principled conservatives argued from day one that a trendy lefty w/o core values leading a center-right party was a disaster waiting to happen. So be it.