I know there's going to be a ridiculous amount of Republicans handwringing about how we need to change everything and last night was certainly a defeat. As of now Mitt Romney lost by 2 points, 5 better than John McCain. He went up against an incumbent President who is a great campaigner and has an appeal to minorities that no Democrat can match.
I'm not saying we don't need to take a look at the party, but this wasn't 2008.
The senate defeat had more to do with bad candidates and bad campaigns than anything else. Republicans lost or may have lost in 6 states Mitt Romney won or may have won. In most cases the GOP senate candidates ran behind Mitt.
There's no magical formula for Republicans to attract minorities. My stance on immigration is at odds with the party's stance, but I don't believe that changing the GOP immigration stance isn't going to suddenly cause Hispanics to vote for us. We are the party of low taxes and low spending. We don't believe in an activist government.
Part of Obama's appeal is his relationship with minorities.
Whites were 72% of the electorate and Democrats lost them by 20 points. Why doesn't this concern them?
I see a number of encouraging signs in exit polls. Obama took the 30-44 segment 52%-45%, pretty much identical to how he did 4 years ago. The 26-29 group moved in. The 41-44 segment, read me, moved out. Yet he didn't move the needle. Democrats are counting on this group voting Democratic as they get older.
Obama showed his biggest drop in the 18-29 group. I don't know the breakdown by age, so I don't know if 18-21 was far less pro-Obama or if he lost across the board.
The Democrats will have to hold together their strong performance with young people and minorities in future elections. Who is the candidate who'll do that?
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