Romney and Ryan were 'shellshocked' by loss, as their wives 'cried softly'
80 replies, posted
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• Romney/Ryan campaign advisers have described the candidates' reactions to their defeat on Tuesday.
• The campaign had dismissed public polls as biased, and designed their own internal polls to be supposedly 'unskewed'. These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide.
• After refusing to accept that Obama had won Ohio, Romney is said to have declared the race over when Colorado too turned blue, and as his anticipated victory in Florida seemed to be slipping away.
• Romney was then 'stoic' as he called the President to concede, but Ryan is described as 'genuinely shocked' and both of their wives were in tears.
[url]http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57547239/adviser-romney-shellshocked-by-loss/[/url]
[quote=CBS News]Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.
Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.
But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.
After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.
"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
They just couldn't believe they had been so wrong. And maybe they weren't: There was Karl Rove on Fox saying Ohio wasn't settled, so campaign aides decided to wait. They didn't want to have to withdraw their concession, like Al Gore did in 2000, and they thought maybe the suburbs of Columbus and Cincinnati, which hadn't been reported, could make a difference.
But then came Colorado for the president and Florida also was looking tougher than anyone had imagined.
"We just felt, 'where's our path?'" said a senior adviser. "There wasn't one."
Romney then said what they knew: it was over.
His personal assistant, Garrett Jackson, called his counterpart on Mr. Obama's staff, Marvin Nicholson. "Is your boss available?" Jackson asked.
Romney was stoic as he talked to the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Running mate Paul Ryan seemed genuinely shocked, the adviser said. Ryan's wife Janna also was shaken and cried softly.
"There's nothing worse than when you think you're going to win, and you don't," said another adviser. "It was like a sucker punch."
Their emotion was visible on their faces when they walked on stage after Romney finished his remarks, which Romney had hastily composed, knowing he had to say something.
Both wives looked stricken, and Ryan himself seemed grim. They all were thrust on that stage without understanding what had just happened.
"He was shellshocked," one adviser said of Romney.
Romney and his campaign had gone into the evening confident they had a good path to victory, for emotional and intellectual reasons. The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.
They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time - poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney.
As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. [B]They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney.[/b] That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.
Those assumptions drove their campaign strategy: their internal polling showed them leading in key states, so they decided to make a play for a broad victory: go to places like Pennsylvania while also playing it safe in the last two weeks.
Those assessments were wrong.
They made three key miscalculations, in part because this race bucked historical trends:
1. They misread turnout. They expected it to be between 2004 and 2008 levels, with a plus-2 or plus-3 Democratic electorate, instead of plus-7 as it was in 2008. Their assumptions were wrong on both sides: The president's base turned out and Romney's did not. More African-Americans voted in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida than in 2008. And fewer Republicans did: Romney got just over 2 million fewer votes than John McCain.
2. Independents. State polls showed Romney winning big among independents. Historically, any candidate polling that well among independents wins. But as it turned out, many of those independents were former Republicans who now self-identify as independents. The state polls weren't oversampling Democrats and undersampling Republicans - there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.
3. Undecided voters. The perception is they always break for the challenger, since people know the incumbent and would have decided already if they were backing him. Romney was counting on that trend to continue. Instead, exit polls show Mr. Obama won among people who made up their minds on Election Day and in the few days before the election. So maybe Romney, after running for six years, was in the same position as the incumbent.
The campaign before the election had expressed confidence in its calculations, and insisted the Obama campaign, with its own confidence and a completely different analysis, was wrong. In the end, it the other way around.
"They were right," a Romney campaign senior adviser said of the Obama campaign's assessments. "And if they were right, we lose."[/quote]
owned
Well, he was completely lied to by his advisers. And to all people suggesting he should have looked at other polls, I sure as hell wouldn't really want to look at the media however I thought the race was going.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Jp3aH.gif[/IMG]
shellshocked
that's the word you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?
"These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide."
Wasn't it Obama that KIND OF won in a landslide? wasn't he about 150 points or so over?
4 moar tears
[QUOTE=J!NX;38383706]shellshocked
thats the world you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?[/QUOTE]
word*
[QUOTE=J!NX;38383706]shellshocked
thats the world you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?[/QUOTE]
We're talking about a guy who's never had anyone say no to him.
[QUOTE=J!NX;38383706]shellshocked
that's the word you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?
"These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide."
Wasn't it Obama that KIND OF won in a landslide? wasn't he about 150 points or so over?[/QUOTE]
Popular vote was 49 to 50. So not really.
[QUOTE=Mr._N;38383729]We're talking about a guy who's never had anyone say no to him.[/QUOTE]
what about on opposite day?
is that where he'll pretend to be king?
well, he can go home now and cry into his piles of money
So shocked they had to cancel all credit cards issued to campaign volunteers the moment he lost, and the volunteers having to find out by not being able to pay the taxi fare back home with it.
but what about tha t republican lead election fraud conspiracy i heard about for a month?
[QUOTE=J!NX;38383706]shellshocked
that's the word you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?
"These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide."
Wasn't it Obama that KIND OF won in a landslide? wasn't he about 150 points or so over?[/QUOTE]
It wasn't a landslide, but most polls had Obama winning by a comfortable margin if I'm not mistaken (Which he did).
[editline]9th November 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=laserguided;38383733]Popular vote was 49 to 50. So not really.[/QUOTE]
Romney lost EVERY battleground state, along with his home state and Ryan's home state.
It's not a landslide, but it's not as close as 50% to 48% implies. Also California, Washington, Oregon, and New York still have quite a few votes to count, so I wouldn't be surprised if the difference ends up higher.
Its like a tragic play.
[quote]• The campaign had dismissed public polls as biased, and designed their own internal polls to be supposedly 'unskewed'. These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide.
[/quote]
Fucking really
Instead of accepting that people may not like your candidate, you choose to yell they're biased and then take your own polls - which you clearly made as biased as possible?
[QUOTE=Billiam;38383873]Romney lost EVERY battleground state, along with his home state and Ryan's home state.
It's not a landslide, but it's not as close as 50% to 48% implies. Also California, Washington, Oregon, and New York still have quite a few votes to count, so I wouldn't be surprised if the difference ends up higher.[/QUOTE]
In terms of a mandate Bush lost the popular vote then started two wars and brought in the Bush tax cuts, so Obama should at least be able to repeal them
[QUOTE=mobrockers2;38383781]So shocked they had to cancel all credit cards issued to campaign volunteers the moment he lost, and the volunteers having to find out by not being able to pay the taxi fare back home with it.[/QUOTE]
Do we have a source on that yet?
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;38383998]Do we have a source on that yet?[/QUOTE]
does huffpo count
[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/09/mitt-romney-campaign-cancels-credit-cards-staffers-aids-election-night_n_2099916.html[/url]
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;38383998]Do we have a source on that yet?[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/11/08/mitt-romneys-campaign-cancels-staffers-credit-cards-in-the-middle-of-the-night/[/url]
have fun
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;38383998]Do we have a source on that yet?[/QUOTE]
I read it here:
[url]http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/11/08/mitt-romneys-campaign-cancels-staffers-credit-cards-in-the-middle-of-the-night/[/url]
[editline]9th November 2012[/editline]
God damnit
[QUOTE]The campaign had dismissed public polls as biased, and designed their own internal polls to be supposedly 'unskewed'. These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide.[/QUOTE]
Wow.
I feel sorry for them, they were lied by their own.
These pools probably made them think that the stupid shit they would say is actually what the people wanted.
[QUOTE=smurfy;38383988]In terms of a mandate Bush lost the popular vote then started two wars and brought in the Bush tax cuts, so Obama should at least be able to repeal them[/QUOTE]
But if enough planes fly into buildings, the president can do anything.
Wow, I actually feel sorry for them, their reactions show how human they really are.
[QUOTE=J!NX;38383706]shellshocked
that's the word you use when you're nearly hit by a bomb :v:
Seriously he's really that surprised?
"These polls had Romney and Ryan genuinely convinced that they were massively popular and would win in a landslide."
Wasn't it Obama that KIND OF won in a landslide? wasn't he about 150 points or so over?[/QUOTE]
A landslide is a double digit spread. There was a ~1-2% spread.
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;38384059]Wow.
I feel sorry for them, they were lied by their own.
These pools probably made them think that the stupid shit they would say is actually what the people wanted.[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily lied to, the campaign managers who designed the 'unskewed' polls probably genuinely believed that the public polls were biased and theirs were right. That narrative seems to be quite popular for conservatives
Now Romney has tears all over his gold plated couch. His maids are collecting them and selling them online.
I disliked both candidates extremely, but I can't help to think how if the tables were turned and Romney won, all this gloating would be considered in poor taste.
Romney got what he deserves.
He wanted to cut so much shit just so the rich can stay rich.
If he had his way, I would not be able to attend college anymore, as I'd be unable to pay for it without the Pell grant and Financial Aid.
Good riddance, you rich bastard.
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