Votes are still being counted. But let’s note that the early reports of a razor thin lead in the popular vote are now outdated. The current margin is Obama 51%, Romney 48%. Obama’s gross margin is now well over 3 million votes and larger than George Bush’s margin of just over 3 million votes. And that margin is almost certain to increase.
In 2008, it was Obama 52.9%, McCain 45.7%, with almost a 10 million vote margin.
As Republicans return with a gusto to the idea ‘outreach’ to minorities I wanted to reprint something I wrote (jeez, time flies) almost fifteen years ago on just this topic. Some of the details have changed. Some of the people have passed from the scene. But the underlying reality remains pretty much the same …
Many of the “wedge issues” that worked so well for the Republicans in the past now present them with problems similar to those discussed above. Nowhere is this more the case than in the Republican Party’s relationship with Hispanic voters.
There’s a lot I don’t agree with in this column by Ross Douthat in the Times. But he makes some very good points about the underlying role of economic policy behind the GOP’s problems and why a sudden flipflop on immigration (even if possible to pull off) wouldn’t be a panacea.
Upshot of comments from the Sunday shows: Republicans realizing they’re in a weak position on budget negotiations.
Two more intriguing articles on this story. First one from the WSJ which goes a bit deeper on just how this emerged when it did — with the fascinating tidbit that someone from the FBI apparently leaked the story to Republican lawmakers in October. Second, this one from Jane Mayer in the New Yorker asking, looking at just what role politics may have played in the timing of the revelation of the story.
Very handy and interesting web app allowing you to look at the Hispanic vote from last Tuesday. Not just the partisan breakdown between Romney and Obama, but men, women, US born v naturalized, different nationalities. Very interesting stuff. It’s put together by Latino Decisions. Very reputable source.
As you know, the great question that faces the nation today is this: were Republicans, particularly Mitt Romney, really “shell shocked” by the results of Tuesday’s election or is this just some elaborate con-job for reasons as yet unknown. Read More
Romney has colossal goof in Debate #2 because he and his staff had been so deep in Benghazi, right-wing blog alternative universe that he couldn’t believe that President Obama had used the words “acts of terror” immediately after the attacks.
Romney team not only loses the election but gets a colossal slap in the face on election night because they’d spent the last two months unskewing their own polls following the guidance of Dean Chambers, founder of unskewedpolls.com.
A number of TPM Readers have written in this morning saying, “Josh, how can you of all people be surprised that Republicans or at least Republican pollsters had created their own alternative numbers reality (or in Megyn Kelly’s now immortal words, “Math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better”) that wasn’t completely cut off from reality.” Read More