Romney senior adviser: "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming"

Maybe that's your problem. Maybe that's the whole Tea Party's problem, too -- whenever anyone attempts to bring up reality you try to shout them down. One person who saw it coming with crystal clarity was Nate Silver, but since you didn't like the results, you chose not to listen. Sucks to be you. [quote]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. Oh, and this: [quote]Romney was stoic as he talked to the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Hope you saved the gift receipt on that crown you thought you were going to wear, honey.

http%3A//www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57547239/adviser-romney-shellshocked-by-loss/



• Why were they shocked at the outcome or so sure they were going to win? I knew it would probably be close and there might be an outside chance of Romney winning, but it seemed like Obama a always a favorite even by a slim margin.

  Anonymous

• Because they live in their own reality. Fox News feeds all it's viewers lies, and they believe the lies, meanwhile life goes on.

• No one would be this confident unless they had people working to fix the election.

• Exactly, R3. This goes beyond denial.

• That these morons didn't see it coming is yet one more reason why he was never qualified to be POTUS.

• Republicans' worst fear has come true: Minorities would wake up someday and realize that if they vote, they win.

• [quote]Romney was stoic as he talked to the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. I wish there was video of that.

• What R7 said.

  Rafalca

• Rove may have tried to fix Ohio, but it wasn't just a fix. Read the article. THEY WERE UNSKEWING THEIR OWN POLLS, AND BELIEVED THE SPIN.

• I don't think I've ever had a reaction to a thread title the way I just did with this one. Just a really, really nice warm feeling came over me.

• Ooh! R7 is getting mean! But Ann kind of brought this on herself.

• And how did we get into Iraq? "Group think?" I sense a pattern here.

• It's like Bill Maher says on his show every week. Republicans live in their own bubble and believe their own lies.

  It%27s%20not%20a%20lie%20Jerry%2C%20if%20YOU%20believe%20it%21

• I'd bottle her tears and use it in place of a saltpeter - a nice treat for you, Rafalca!

• Their entitlement is staggering.

• The taste of Ann Romney's tears is delicious!

• Surely, one person campaigning with romeany noticed there were an exceedingly large number of people walking around with their heads up their ass. I don't buy it that no one saw this coming, under any other circumstances. I don't recall a single statement from the romeany camp that the sky was blue. That alone should have provided a hint that they had their heads up someone's ass.

• IMHO, Obama won the popular vote by more than 3 points. The fix was in (I think) and that's why Rove looked so surprised (that and what's his future after losing close to $400 million dollars without ever getting it back!!!)

• I just wish this was taking place a few hundred years ago so we could start the hanging.

• They started campaigning in Pennsylvania 5 days before the election. Someone had to have known Ohio was fucked? But than again, from what the media is saying, the Romney people believed there would be a huge surge for Romney on election day and that wasn't showing up in the polls. They were going on faith, the Obama campaign was working with math and facts.

• It is the right wing bubble of ignoring facts and only believing the world you want to see and only trusting right wing news sources. I completely believe it, there was a reason Romney waited so awkwardly long to concede. It is the same reason Romney got called on the the "act of terror" rose garden address. He honestly believed the president must not have said it because that is what all the right wing news sources said. Thus the great Rachel Maddow rant. The right HAS to start accepting facts and reality and not just what they want to believe.

• Every state they own a house in voted for Obama--MA, NH, MI and CA. In other words: get the fuck out of our state, and take your Children of the Corn with you.

• It's a feedback loop of trickle-down stupidity and trickle-up stupidity.

• According to the piece, r20, their fanciful reinterpretation and 'unskewing' of the polls led them to believe they were safe everywhere and could romp over to PA.

• Every Republican I know kept insisting polls were tied and would not listen when I explained how the electoral college works or suggested they read Nate Silver's blog. They honestly thought each candidate had an equal chance of winning! So much denial and unwillingness to face reality.

• Not surprising that a former CEO would surround himself with "Yes Men" and Groupthinkers. You can't do that in politics.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

• Something went REALLY wrong in Ohio... They thought it was in the bag for them. FBI?

• Ha HA! SNAP IN YO FACE! I wonder if Ann still "loves all-llll you WOMEN!" GAG. The most pandering, cringe- worthy moment of the campaign! Go hop on your horse, Annie! Ride away and take dick-nose with you!

• Someone please start a thread (too funny): [quote]Mitt Romney's Campaign Cancels Staffers Credit Cards In The Middle Of The Night [quote]Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.

• Interesting poinT R26. I also have to wonder if people were intimidated from being truthful and who did the intimidating.

• Ann makes the face Cloris Leachman made in the opening credits of Phyllis...

  http://ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ap95963959964.jpg

• R29, someone already started a thread about that.

  R25

• R27, after the auto bailout and the jeep ad lie, there was no way he was winning unless it was rigged, and no doubt Jon Husted tried, but the votes for Obama were too overwhelming. People willing to wait hours to vote. The GOP pissed off a lot of people.

• That's Republican woman face, R31.

• The massive Obama turnout—people showing up at 5am and waiting hours, standing in line until well past midnight in Florida—overwhelmed the rigging. I wonder what the true popular vote was.

• Just found it, R32. Thanks.

• r35, and others, well stated! I think Obama won by at least 3 more points than what has been reported (and, alas, accepted). Which is why dear old dad (though not too old) is pissed about the results. Ignorant.

• even more pathetic than I imagined while it always seemed the pop vote would be close-every poll showed that O lead in almost every contested state stop drinking your own fake cool aid

• Then he's too stupid to be President.

• [quote]Because they live in their own reality. Fox News feeds all it's viewers lies, and they believe the lies, meanwhile life goes on. [quote]They were going on faith, the Obama campaign was working with math and facts. [quote]Thus the great Rachel Maddow rant. The right HAS to start accepting facts and reality and not just what they want to believe. The posters above have all accurately described various parts of the problem: we have one group of people -- the Democrats, the liberals, and the progressives -- acting like adults and trying to deal with issues in a rational way based on facts and evidence. We have another group of people -- the Republicans, the conservatives, and the Tea Party -- who live in their own fantasy world completely devoid and totally bereft of anything resembling reality. It would be one thing if the two groups were approaching problems from a different philosophy, not a different reality: one very real and the other one completely made up. Governing -- as the President and Senate and House Democrats have discovered -- with this kind of a set-up is a nightmare. It is like trying to have a reasonable conversation with your demented uncle. So, the Democrats carry on as best they can, but at some point something is going to have to give. Republicans haven't always been this incredibly stupid and out-of-touch. But this is like going through the looking glass.

• [quote]Janine Turner [quote]As I sit in fear of another four years of Obama and the end of America .. I grabbed my bible and it fell open to this scripture: Mathew 7:25 "The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock."

• Oh, Janine, you're so funny. You had one part in one hit show twenty years ago. And since then, well, you had that eye watering commercial. Psalm 123:6 "Wake up you stupid bitch." It just "fell open." All this started with Reagan who was the ultimate liar, who lied so often and so well that he believed it was true - and could get others to believe it.

• [quote]Every state they own a house in voted for Obama--MA, NH, MI and CA. You have to wonder why he chose residences in blue states. At least Bush knew he belonged with rednecks in TX.

• [quote]It is the right wing bubble of ignoring facts and only believing the world you want to see and only trusting right wing news sources. Yes, and I think this is buttressed by not socializing with people who don't share their views. The idea that intelligent people can hold differing opinions seems to be fading away. Well, if you get your news from right-wing sites and you hang out with right-wing people, there's nothing to pierce the bubble.

• they better change and change fast. and turn off fox news.

• [quote]Every state they own a house in voted for Obama--MA, NH, MI and CA. Yes, but I'm pretty sure he carried the Cayman Islands.

• r21, you've got something there. Sure, there is a certain amount of rhetorical distortion in progressive sources of political commentary. But you can count on someone like Rachel Maddow or Paul Krugman not to just make shit up about the Republicans, and you can verify what they say in the few remaining news sources that are more or less reliable and at least try to maintain some objectivity.

• [quote] I grabbed my bible and it fell open to this scripture: Mathew 7:25 "The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock." Considering there are those who believe Obama won because Hurricane Sandy stopped Romney's momentum. I think she should re-read that and see that Obama's White House had the foundation of a rock.

• In other words, an Act of God put Obama over-the top. Ha!

• Datalounge is the real-life version of "Mean Girls" - except with adults.

• [quote] Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked Wow. A place where cabs take credit cards.

  Backward D.C.

• [quote]Maybe that's your problem. Maybe that's the whole Tea Party's problem, too -- whenever anyone attempts to bring up reality you try to shout them down. The Republicans would be wise to tape OP's first paragraph to every mirror, computer monitor, and refrigerator door they own so they are exposed to it daily. Despite the money they invested in Karl Rove and company, the Republican party has never received better advice than what OP offered them right there.

• Gee, the most entitled man in the world married to the most entitled woman in the world didn't see this coming? I am shocked. Of course, that's what makes it all so wonderful.

• I don't believe that his staff saw this coming either

  http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/314275_437298576327686_36207563_n.jpg

• r43 GW Bush lives in Dallas County, which Obama won by more than 100,000 votes. Bush can't even pick a red county to live in - just another one of his fuckups!

• From The Onion:

  http://www.theonion.com/articles/romney-camp-retooling-campaign-after-latest-setbac%2C30282/

• I think these types are just genuinely used to getting their own way and there is still my feeling that they tried to rig an election but it didn't turn work.

• I'm also suspicious about attempted vote rigging. Look at all the effort they put into voter suppression and intimidation, e.g. voter ID laws, Romney supporters tossing out Democrats' forms at those registration drives, etc. WHo knows what would have happened if President Obama hadn't sent all those folks to monitor things? Dubya taught us very valuable lessons in 2000 and 2004; we cannot trust Republicans to play by the rules and must keep our eye on them.

  R25

• That's what you get when you fall for your own 'my way or the highway' hype.

• Did Romney have ANYONE on his staff who isn't legally blind?

• He would have fired them for being negative, R60.

• This does not surprise me one bit. This is exactly how privileged, entitled people think. They think their way, their lives, are above everyone else and they should be given things because they are naturally deserving. Couldn't be happier they fell flat on their asses and I hope the trend of upturning the douchebaggery in America only continues to get stronger and stronger. No one is superior. Period.

• Romney didn't see his defeat coming? Well his campaign advisors taking taxis home Tuesday night didn't see this coming: Their credit cards were cut off that night. Couldn't even pay their fare home. Romney had just thanked them, but now their credit crads were no good. He's a cold, calculating motherfucker.

• I'm British, and haven't stopped smiling since Tuesday. Made yesterday at the dentist a bit awkward, but still...

• "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming" Not seeing what is right there in front of you has a medical name. And the good news is that Obamacare covers 'psychosis' as a pre-existing condition. But there's already a long line of Republicans, seeking treatment from the episode where they swore they saw the President seated on stage, talking to Clint Eastwood.

• R64, you won't be smiling when you get an influx of idiot Freepers who vowed to leave this country for the UK because we've reelected a socialist communist who will raise taxes and destroy America because of healthcare. (Psst... don't tell them)

• "Obamacare" A mean-spirited term of abuse which will eventually become the proud epitaph of a truly great man...

• [quote]THEY WERE UNSKEWING THEIR OWN POLLS, AND BELIEVED THE SPIN. "Unskewing"? This is the second thread you've posted that in, and I still don't understand what you're talking about.

• [quote]"Obamacare" [quote]A mean-spirited term of abuse which will eventually become the proud epitaph of a truly great man... He owns it now, which I love.

• In interview, Ann Romney told the Obamas to 'Start Packing.' Remember this every time you feel a twinge of sorrow for this cunt.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D7XAxYmwkpLY

• [quote]"Unskewing"? This is the second thread you've posted that in, and I still don't understand what you're talking about. You could uncork your head from your ass and google the term, but I'll take pity on you and explain. "Unskewed Polls" is an infamously biased right-wing poll-analysis site launched by the clueless non-statistician and Nate Silver-detractor, Dean Chambers—the guy who claimed Silver's analysis was untrustworthy because, basically, Silver is gay and has a soft, unmanly voice. Chambers claimed to be "unskewing" biased poll results by applying a model that led the results to predict a Romney landslide. Obviously, analysis could not have been more wrong.