Romney: Obama won by giving "gifts" to voter blocs
In a phone call with his presidential campaign's financial backers, Mitt Romney today said he lost the election to President Obama because of the "gifts" Mr. Obama gave to certain constituencies, like young voters and Hispanics, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"The president's campaign," he said, "focused on giving targeted groups a big gift -- so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars."
Romney reportedly said that college-age women, for instance, were motivated to vote for the president since his health care plan includes full coverage of birth control costs. Lower income voters, as well as Hispanic and African-American voters, were motivated by Mr. Obama's promise of providing them with health insurance "in perpetuity." Additionally, he reportedly said Hispanics turned out to vote for Mr. Obama's promise of "amnesty" for certain undocumented youth.
Mr. Obama had been "very generous" to young voters and minorities, Romney reportedly said. Of course, not all of Mr. Obama's policies have targeted specific constituencies -- for instance, the president has passed several tax breaks for small business owners and in 2010 extended the Bush tax cuts for all income groups, as Republicans wanted.
Romney was notoriously similarly candid with his donors about Mr. Obama's base of support back in May, when he said the president's supporters are "dependent on government" and "believe that they are victims."
