You promised yourself you wouldn’t do a postmortem. To what end? The all-knowing pundits — from former WH operatives to exalted journalists to shrill TV girlies — already dissected the election corpse and uncovered any number of incurable diseases. The milk is decidely spilt — and curdled. Just let it go. The deed is done. Bury the dead. Yes, indeed, but long ago you incessantly predicted the carnage and now, tearfully, you deserve to indulge your “rightness.” Mitt was bound to lose, not because he moved too far to the Right, not because of demographics, not because women wanted their contraception and Roe vs Wade protection at taxpayer expense, not because he threatened the Gangs . . er .. the Unions, not because the majority of young voters are ignorant (which they are), not because blacks are racist (which they are), not because Hispanics wanted free stuff (which they do) and not because network TV is morally and ethically corrupt (which it is). Mitt lost because:
He and his advisers, in their collective gut, thought they couldn’t lose. The American people, at crunch time, would never, ever, re-elect an abject failure, a pompous, unmitigated liar and transparent Socialist — someone so clearly resentful and bitter toward American exceptionalism. They wouldn’t. Wrong. Dead wrong.
His message was always off target. He was persuaded that “it’s only the economy, stupid.” Yes, everybody knew the problems; they didn’t need to be told and told and told. He droned on about unemployment, the deficits, food stamps and other economic statistics. If you have cancer, no one needs to tell you over and over that you have it. You know it.
He didn’t acknowledge that the economy was only a symptom of a more perilous threat. He refused to look evil in the face and name it, not daring to upset his darling demographic — the Almighty Independent. He refused to fight an ideological war because ideology is a dirty word. As his opponent raped the Constitution, he — as an American citizen — exhibited not the slightest outrage. He did not defend America.
He attempted to reach into the minds of voters and utterly avoided their hearts. A fine human being through and through, he ironically ignored humanity. The people desperately were looking for a warrior — The Gladiator — to step into the arena and call out Commodus. Somehow, Mitt didn’t understand that many great warriors are also great men.
He allowed evil deeds to stand unchallenged. So fearful of drawing blood and alienating moderate voters, he walked on eggshells and played “prevent defense,” thinking the election was his, IF he didn’t slip. The Benghazi debate moment was his opportunity, following BHO’s “offended” speech regarding his actions after the tragedy. Mitt needed to throw off his political hat, and say: “Excuse me, Mr. President, but as an American citizen, I’m offended you would come out on this stage and hand me and the American people this line of sanctimonious BS. I’m speaking to you now as a citizen, and I’m outraged that you flew off to a political fundraising party the very day after terrorists murdered Americans on American soil. You’re the Commander In Chief– your most important job. How do you justify that? Justify that to the families of those who were murdered.” He didn’t dare then and he didn’t, on numerous other occasions, dare bloody the Obama nose.
He didn’t speak to the Obama constituency with a compelling message. He gave up on them. Meanwhile, he couldn’t or wouldn’t truly energize the conservative base, thinking he had them enthusiastically in the bag, only to see them stay home or cast a million votes for the Libertarian.
But the pundits will prattle on now that no one could have bested the Democrat machine and the demographic takers who were fearful of losing their goodies. As many predicted, several of the truly conservative candidates would have at least gone to war and raised the level of debate to call out the culprits, suspects and criminals. Romney is a good man. You heard through the grapevine that, behind the scenes, he is as tough as nails — “he didn’t get where he is by being a sissy” — well, too bad he didn’t bring an heroic boldness to the public stage. The stage is pristine clean. Not a drop of blood.