November 18, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Republicans Restore Their Antipathy For Romney
Now that the election is over, and Obama has won a second term, Republicans are reverting to their previous position of antipathy for Mitt Romney. The temporary enthusiasm they had for their once hopeful candidate for president, who essentially ran for the job the last six years, is now replaced with a fresh dose of reality.
Unfortunately, Mitt Romney has not yet embraced reality and is blaming everything except for himself for the loss. Last week we found out that Romney told campaign donors that he believes Obama’s victory was a result of “extraordinary financial gifts from the government,” and he specifically mentioned African-Americans and Hispanic voters as the recipients of these “gifts” in his post-election critique. Romney was talking about the Affordable Care Act and student loan reform, among other first term achievements by the Obama administration. It’s entirely possible that many Republicans agree with Romney, but they sure aren’t showing it.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said:
“We as a Republican Party have to campaign for every single vote,” Jindal said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We don’t start winning majorities … by insulting our voters.” – Politico
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said:
We’re in a big hole, we’re not getting out of it by comments like that. When you’re in a hole, stop digging. He keeps digging,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re in a death spiral with Hispanic voters because of our rhetoric on immigration, and our candidate Romney and the primaries dug the hole deeper.” – TPM
And even a top Romney campaign surrogate had something to say:
Carlos Gutierrez, a top Hispanic surrogate and adviser to the Romney campaign, said he was “shocked” by the comments. “I don’t know if he understood that he was saying something that was insulting,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” – TPM
Of course, many Republicans were defending this kind of language (like Romney’s “47%” comment) all the way up to election day. Post election defeat, they are whistling a different tune. For the party all about personal responsibility, many Republicans, especially Mitt Romney, are really good at blaming everything that ails the country on “others.” But it appears some Republicans recognize this is not a winning strategy for the next presidential election. It remains to be seen if this is really a sea change for the Republican Party, or just a temporary post-election blip on the radar.
