Top Republicans say Romney didn't offer specifics

November 15, 2012 @ 12:31 pm


FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012, file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign event at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H. Romney is telling top donors that President Barack Obama won re-election because of the "gifts" he had already provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters. Romney also cites as a reason for his loss the president's effort to paint Romney as anti-immigrant. In a call Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, to those donors, Romney said Obama's campaign focused on giving targeted groups what he called "a big gift" while his campaign had been about, in his words, "big issues for the whole country." (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) | Zoom
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Top Republicans meeting for the first time since Election Day say the party failed to unseat President Barack Obama because nominee Mitt Romney did not respond to criticism strongly enough or outline a specific agenda with a broad appeal.

In conversations at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas, a half dozen party leaders predicted the GOP will lose again if it keeps running the same playbook based on platitudes in place of detailed policies. Instead, these leaders asserted, the party needs to learn the lessons from its loss, respect voters' savvy and put forward an agenda that appeals beyond the white, male voters who are its base.

"We need to acknowledge the fact that we got beat," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in an interview. "We clearly got beat and we need to recognize that."

Little more than a week after Romney came up short in his presidential bid, the party elders were looking at his errors and peering ahead to 2016's race. Some of the contenders eying a White House run of their own were on hand and quietly considering their chances. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie scheduled a private meeting on the sidelines with Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor who is widely seen as one of the GOP's sharpest political operatives.

"We need to have a brutal, brutally honest assessment of everything we did," Barbour said. "We need to take everything apart ... and determine what we did that worked and what we did that didn't work."

Other potential White House contenders such as Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were outlining a vision for the party in coming elections.

"We need to figure out what we did right and what we did wrong, how we can improve our tone, our message, our technology, our turnout _ all the things that are required to win elections," McDonnell said. "We are disappointed, but we are not discouraged."

With polls in hand and shifting demographic trends in mind, these Republicans are looking at how best to position the party to make inroads with growing numbers of Hispanic, black and young voters who overwhelmingly voted Democratic last week. The Republicans were still smarting over constant criticism of Romney from Obama and Vice President Joe Biden _ and what they saw as Romney's often ineffective response.

"They spent all their time making Mitt Romney unacceptable and making him out to be someone who was untrustworthy and unacceptable to enough of the American people _ and it worked," Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said in an interview.

In the hallways at the conference, the governors and their top advisers uniformly blamed Romney's loss on an uneven communications strategy. They said Romney allowed himself to be branded a corporate raider who put the interests of the wealthy above those of middle-income voters.

"We didn't have effective means by which to counter the attacks the Obama-Biden campaign took against Mitt Romney and his team," Walker said. "I just don't think you can let that go unanswered."

Time and again, the governors pointed to Obama attacks that settled into voters' minds.

"His whole campaign was a fear-and-smear attack to make Romney unacceptable and to blame George Bush for anything that happened while Obama was president," Barbour said. "This was all personal: that Romney is a vulture capitalist who doesn't care about people like you, ships jobs overseas, is a quintessential plutocrat and is married to a known equestrian."

Barbour added: "An attack unanswered is an attack admitted to."

Had the criticism been shown to be false or unfair, the results might have been better, said Bill Bennett, an education secretary in the Reagan administration and an informal adviser to governors.

"We were in a big fight. We came with a knife; they came with a gun," Bennett said. "If Mitt Romney had responded and had we responded on his behalf _ and had his campaign pushed back more forcefully _ I think it would have been a different result."

Jindal, however, attributed Romney's loss to a lack of "a specific vision that connected with the American people."

"His campaign was largely about his biography and his experience," Jindal said. "But time and time again, biography and experience is not enough to win an election. You have to have a vision, you have to connect your policies to the aspirations of the American people. I don't think the campaign did that and as a result, this became a contest between personalities and _ you know what? _ Chicago won that."

Romney cast his loss in a different light, at least in a phone call Wednesday with top donors. He asserted that Obama won re-election because of the "gifts" the president had already provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters and because of the president's effort to paint Romney as anti-immigrant.

"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said, citing immigration proposals aimed at Hispanics and free contraception coverage that appealed to young women. "He made a big effort on small things."

White House press secretary Jay Carney disputed Romney's assessment, telling reporters traveling with Obama to New York City on Thursday that policies allowing more young people to go to college or stay on their parents' health plans are good for the country and the economy.

"I think that view of the American people or the electorate and the election is at odds with the truth of what happened last week," Carney said.

Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country." He said he faced problems as a candidate because he was "getting beat up" by the Obama campaign. He said the debates allowed him to come back.

The Republican nominee didn't acknowledge any major missteps and said his team had run a superb campaign.


(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (6)


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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Romney was not Obama!
    November 15, 2012 3:02 am
    We have the last 4 years of Obamunism to know how bad the next four years will be. Obama is an ultra Left winger. We know what this means. Mr. Romney may not have been the most Conservative of our choices but HE WAS NOT OBAMA!

    Now you mindless Useful Idiot Left wing Parrots have condemned Americas to 4 more years of Obama. An Obama who is UNACCOUNTABLE to anyone. Even you Left wing Parrots!

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  • CH wrote...
    Top Republicans_ say Romney didn't offer specifics . . . .
    November 15, 2012 5:19 am
    maybe he didn't have any? Fire Girl I sent you a poster of Deal Leader Obama so when you wake up every morning you will know who the Dear Leader is. Going to "B" a long 12 years for you. I'm soooo glad you did not jump yet.
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Parrots check out these specifics from your Dear Leader,
    November 15, 2012 6:29 am
    The Department of Labor has announced that new jobless claims rose by a staggering 78,000 in the first week after the election, reaching a seasonally-adjusted total of 439,000. Over the past year, and in the weeks leading up to the election, jobless claims were said to be declining, dipping as low as 339,000, with the media proclaiming that they had reached the "lowest level in more than four years." Now, suddenly, the news seems far less rosy.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    Republicans...
    November 15, 2012 6:34 am
    A party in denial.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cbrew wrote...
    Wow, as clueless as they were in the election... they're even more clueless afterwards
    November 15, 2012 8:00 am
    Romney is saying he lost because Obama approved of contraceptives? That's what a vote costs Romney? You're so stupid you actually believe that? This is why you're not President. The rest of the Republican Party is trying to say that they lost because of the President's negative campaigning, are you serious? Romney ran just as negative if not more negative ads than Obama... Only a very small percentage of these morons got it partially right, Romney didn't win because he didn't have a plan for America he offered no specific details for the "plans" he claimed to have. The other reason is, Romney is a rich snob that was born with a silver spoon in his mouth... How can you ask Average Americans to relate to a guy that was born rich, given everything in life without earning it, and will die rich handing it down to the next group of snobs.... America wasn't built this way, this is not a country built by wealthy businessman that never lifted a finger, it was built by the Middle and poor classes in America... Finally, yet another reason the Republicans lost, is they're viewed as hateful, spiteful, vindictive people. They whine every time they lose an election and pout like babies until the next one, nobody wants a whiner party... Repubs will lose every election until they change their ways, and every time they do they will deserve it.
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  • longwayhome wrote...
    He didn't offer anything!
    November 15, 2012 7:44 pm
    Except to "take care of his rich friends" When will you idiots get over the fact that you have eight (8) more years of Democratic Presidents? 4 more years of Obama and then Hillary Clinton will most likely be the next President, and then she will probably get two terms as well. That over pass is looking pretty good, its me? Just let me know, I'll be there.
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