Opinion: Mitt Romney's Parting Gift
Mitt Romney gave America a parting gift yesterday. It wasn't his tax returns or the secret roadmap to make his tax cuts reduce the deficit.
In fact the Romney campaign's economic advisor came out for raising taxes on the richest Americans after Romney's landslide loss.
No, Willard Mitt Romney gave one final pathetic and whining kick in the teeth to the 47 percent of Americans he has nothing but disdain for.
On a conference call with donors Romney claimed that Obama won because he gave "gifts" to African Americans, Latinos and young voters.
Some donors invited on the call by the Romney campaign, likely furious at Romney for wasting their money and lying about the polling, recorded the call or shared access with reporters.
It was one final embarrassment for the worst candidate the GOP could have possibly nominated, as Rick Santorum put it.
Romney, blamed his loss on "gifts" to select groups, "especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people. In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups," according to the New York Times.
Romney compared his strategy to the Obama campaign, which he accused of "following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls." He added that, "in each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups."
For young voters there was the extension of health coverage for children up to the age 26 on their parents' insurance plans, forgiveness of college loan interest and, of course, free contraception.
At times Romney would emphasize his points by pointing out what were "big gifts" to constituencies.
He added that Obamacare's coverage "in perpetuity" was another "gift" to people of low income that led to Romney's defeat.
Specifically, according to the LA Times, Romney said: "With regards to African American voters, 'Obamacare' was a huge plus — and was highly motivational to African American voters. You can imagine for somebody making $25—, or $30—, or $35,000 a year, being told you're now going to get free healthcare — particularly if you don't have it, getting free healthcare worth, what, $10,000 a family, in perpetuity, I mean this is huge. Likewise with Hispanic voters, free healthcare was a big plus."
Romney also asserted that: "With regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for the children of illegals — the so-called Dream Act kids — was a huge plus for that voting group. On the negative side, of course, they always characterized us as being anti-immigrant, being tough on illegal immigration, and so forth, so that was very effective with that group."
He accused the president of spending "trillions of dollars" on these "gifts."
Separately, in an actually on camera interview that was knowingly done with a reporter, Paul Ryan blamed the loss on "urban voters".
He does have a point, right? How dare they vote? Who do they think they are, Americans?
It was unclear of Ryan was including his home town of Janesville, Wisconsin, which he lost twice on election night. That's right, Paul Ryan's hometown neighbors voted against him – TWICE! – in his House race and in the Presidential.
Of course Paul Ryan was not the only candidate to lose his home state. Mitt Romney managed to lose both of his home states – Massachusetts and Michigan.
On the donor call, Romney's incompetent pollster, Neil Newhouse, who had Romney ahead and winning the election all along blamed hurricane Sandy for a sudden and dramatic shift in the polls. Of course those of us that live in what we like to call REALITY and not the world of Rush Limbaugh and FOX News know that all the polling was correct and that Obama had a sustained lead throughout the fall.
President Obama did not have a sudden multi-million vote swing because Americans had grown tired of him as president over a four year period but were suddenly inspired over a four day period because they had reminder that his administration, unlike the GOP administration that preceded him, was competent.
The fact is that Mitt Romney lost badly in a year that economic numbers dictate that he should have won. But Mitt Romney blew that opportunity for Republicans because of what Rick Santorum identified during the primaries: Mitt Romney was the worst candidate Republicans could have run against President Obama.
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
