@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:
This victory was based on campaign strategy, not candidate quality.
And quite a good strategy it was. It recognized that you have to have a leader who represents the interests of all voters and not just white men, or the affluent, or the religious right. And Obama was the better candidate to appeal to those diverse interests, and the one who could form a more genuine empathic connection with the economic concerns of a struggling middle class.
I think Romney also screwed up by not fully acknowledging the very real problems, and causative factors, that have hampered a speedier recovery from a devastating economic recession, and by trying to blame it all on Obama's allegedly failed policies. Romney largely denied that, in fact, the economy has steadily continued to improve, albeit at a slow place, but also at a pace which could not have been appreciably accelerated by anything realistically within the President's control given the economic mess, and the cost of two wars, that he inherited when he took the oath of office.
Most voters were not as angry at, or displeased with, the policies of the Obama administration as Romney, or his strategists, apparently believed, and basing a campaign mainly on relentlessly negative attacks, and a return to Republican policies that were not all that successful in the past, just did not give the electorate enough motivation to deny Obama a second term, or to disrupt the steady progress of a still struggling and fragile economic recovery. Voters are far more disgusted with the partisan gridlock in Congress than they are with the President, and, if anything, Romney's more intractable hardliner rhetoric promised to bring even more rancor and deadlocking rather than the inevitable compromise which is going to be necessary for any moves forward.
The tremendous amount of shape-shifting, and flip-flopping, also left Romney too much of an unknown quantity, and, I think, inspired too much uncertainty about which Mitt Romney would actually occupy the White House, and which special interests, or factions, might be controlling him once he got there. Given that the Republican party itself is so deeply fractured at this point, Romney's failure to clearly, and definitively, define himself, in a way that the average person could connect to, and be sure of, was a liability, and his frankly wooden personal style only heightened that drawback. When you have to work to make your presidential candidate appear more "human" you're in trouble.
It was also a screw-up that he allowed social issues, like abortion and rape, and even contraception for women, to dominate the campaign discussion for far too long, mainly because he failed to sufficiently distance himself from the unfortunate, and blatantly ignorant, comments made by Sen. Akin, or from the very extremist positions of his own party platform on social issues that he allowed himself to be saddled with. This diversion, and the discussion it generated, really helped to solidify the democratic base, including the support of women, and helped to motivate their turn-out at the polls, even among the less enthusiastic Obama supporters, because of the specter of a President Romney's influence on future Supreme Court nominees regarding these issues. And the more recent remarks by Sen. Mourdock only revived the discussion once again, this time much closer to election day.
Campaign strategies certainly are important, but so is the candidate himself. Romney just lacked the personal charisma, and definite and clear domestic and foreign policies, to convince enough people that he was a better bet for the next four years, that he really would be better for the country. And, his main problem was that Obama isn't widely personally disliked--Obama's personal favorability ratings have remained above the 50% mark--even throughout the campaign--and, even though his approval ratings have been lower, he really hasn't screwed-up his first term in office to the extent that Romney tried to claim--things have gotten better in terms of the economy, one war was ended and the other is winding down, Bin Laden is gone, he can point to campaign promises he has kept, he has made statements and implemented policies to ensure greater equality for women, and gays, and the children of undocumented aliens, all of which promote inclusiveness, and all of which embrace the current cultural diversity, and the ascendancy of minorities in this country, which the Republicans are ignoring at their own peril.
Obama was just the better candidate, who also had the better strategy. Romney screwed-up by underestimating him.