The Real Reasons Romney Lost

By Tommy Acosta

In looking back at the Republican presidential defeat, we need to strip away pretense and look at what really happened.

Republican honchos, strategists and players are huddled in corners licking their wounds and desperately trying to find a reason that makes sense to them as to why they were defeated so soundly.

The answer is in front of their noses, so close they are unable to focus.

Simply put, the problem with Republicans is not their ability to wage sound business, balance budgets and maintain family values but the perception of them being insensitive, puritanical, money hungry and callous to their less-fortunate fellow humans.

Let us look at some points that contributed to the Republican candidate’s crushing and embarrassing defeat.

Romney’s rejection by Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, Young People, Single Women, Pot Smokers and Seniors

When the time came to fill in the ballot, undecided Gays, Blacks, Hispanics, single women, young people, those living on the economic edge, seniors and pot heads just couldn’t vote for Romney no matter how bad the economy was or how bad a job Republicans said Obama is doing.

For the Gays, Republicans have always been the main force behind their not being allowed to enjoy marital rights. For Blacks, Romney represents the party that fought hardest for decades to deny them civil rights. For Hispanics, Romney represents the party that sponsored SB70. For single women, Romney represents the party that claimed rapes are God’s will and would deny them the right to terminate a resulting pregnancy. For seniors, Romney represents the party that would take down Social Security and Medicare. For young people, the Republican Party is for old people. For pot heads, Romney would wage a real war on medical marijuana. For people living on the economic edge, Romney represents the party that would take food from their baby’s mouth.

The Impact of the “Pot Party”

Baby Boomers that smoke pot and young adults that smoke pot have a similar passion. They love to smoke pot. It’s no secret to the ever-growing, pot-smoking voting bloc that their greatest persecutors have been Republicans. Sure, Obama’s State Department has harassed some medical marijuana providers in certain states, mostly California, but it is nothing compared to the kind of “war on pot” Romney and Republicans would wage if they got back in power.

Look at Arizona, a Republican stronghold, where even though voters approved medical marijuana, Republican state representatives and officials are doing everything and anything they can to make it impossible for patients to legally purchase their medicine. Who remembers Nixon’s “War on Drugs?” Pot smokers know who their real enemies are.

Pot smokers are a political force. Active pot smokers have assimilated into the halls of political influence and business enterprise and are organizing. They got money. They are launching initiatives, referendums and backing political candidates that get the message. Their influence in the 2014 mid-term election will be heavy if not profound. Move over Tea Party and make way for the “Pot Party.” Watch the Republican 2014 mid-term elections go up in smoke.

Rope a Dope: How Obama Took Apart Romney in the Debates

A lot of Republicans, especially the Fox News pundits, were in shock, bewildered because they honestly believed in the first presidential debate Romney KO’d Obama and it was impossible for the president to get back on his feet and recover after such a beating. Democrats hung their heads in despair thinking it was all over for Obama after the first debate.

Those who understand the sweet art of boxing saw something else. Obama was playing Romney like legendary boxer Mohammed Ali did George Forman with the infamous “rope-a-dope” ploy, where Ali hung back on the ropes until Foreman got tired of punching, then came in and knocked Foreman out. In the first debate Romney leaped from his corner, like Foreman, swinging away with haymakers while Obama leaned back on the ropes and absorbed the ferocious attack. He took a lot of hard hits, but like Ali, Obama withstood the blows, studying Romney’s style while taking shots to the body to better prepare for the next round.

In the second debate Obama was on his feet, literally, and like Ali, danced, slipped Romney’s jabs and wild rights and stung him with his own throughout the debate. Like Ali did to George Foreman, Obama figured his opponent out and was ready to turn the tables. Consider Obama had not been in a debate in four years while Romney honed and sharpened his skills during the Republican primaries. Obama had to shake the ring-rust off.

In the third debate Obama, like Ali in the last round, went to work doing what he does best; taking an opponent apart with hard lefts and harder right hands while deftly blocking and dodging his opponent’s tired blows. Whipping Romney in the last debate, Obama energized his followers to get back in there and fight to the end.

Entitlements: Six of These – Half a Dozen of the Other

Republicans rile against entitlements, wailing our tax dollars are keeping a welfare state in business. Well, there is also the business of welfare. What would happen to shop owners and grocery producers if those checks stopped coming to their food stamp customers and seniors dependent on Social Security? The industry would lose billions. And Medicare? Obamacare? What would happen if there was no coverage available for these people? The pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and doctors would lose billions as well. Democrats and Republican investors and business owners in both fields would suffer mammoth financial losses without entitlements. There are two parties benefiting from our tax dollars: the buyers and the sellers; the people on entitlements and those who take their money. Too many people on the receiving end of entitlements for the Republicans to gain traction for their “cut-them-off” plans for the future.

Benghazi vs. the Real 911

Here’s where the Republican effort to hurt Obama in retaliation for their loss verges on the edge of pathetic. By what stretch of logic can they try to replace the outrage the American press should have expressed when the first 911 occurred with what allegedly happened in Benghazi?

Fox news pundits are chewing a bone that has no meat on it. The Benghazi incident pales in comparison to the Republican administration’s massive intelligence failure of September 11, 2001. On the real 911 we were under attack for almost an hour without our Air Force interceding to protect us. Unbelievable incompetence that lead to deadly consequence, how could we have been so slow to respond to the hijacked jets of 911? Benghazi, in comparison to the real 911 and what is happening in the rest of the Mid East right now, was a cozy campfire, now smoldering in the ashes of a soon-to-be-forgotten military-sex scandal of epic proportions.

Conclusion

It wasn’t a matter of how bad a job Obama was doing. Rather, it was how worse a job Romney would do.