Romney never had any remote chance to win

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Romney barely lost Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. All those states were close enough so that they could have gone either way. Sure the polls are pretty accurate, but they can often be off by a couple of percentage points. I'm not saying that Obama wasn't a solid favorite going into Tuesday. He was a solid favorite but his leads were very small in those 3 states and also in Colorado.

On a different subject, even though it didn't make the difference in this election, the winner take all rule of the Electoral college is absurd. For example, if Romney gets 10 million votes in Florida and Obama get 9.9 million votes there, why should Romney sweep all the electoral votes in that state? It is absurd.

The popular vote and electoral college votes match (except for Gore), so I really don't have problem with that. It does keep us trapped in a two, not three or more, party system.

My point in this thread is that the Romney crowd really, honestly thought they were gonna win, and were truly devastated and shocked when they lost.

But that could have been avoided if they didn't base their hopes and dreams upon deliberately ignoring all the aggregate polling that said Romney could never win the swing states, in favor of one or two polls that were hopeful or showed Romney ahead (while seven others showed him behind)

Two or three points is huge - not "either way", depending upon what polling techniques are used. And the Romney campaign repeatedly embraced faulty technique that told them what they wanted to hear, and deliberately ignored better analysis that told the story of his probable loss months ago.

Look at the angry donors, who were told Romney was a lock by the Romney campaign - based upon bad, bad polling analysis. I'd be angry too. They were not lied to deliberately - they were given bad, bad information from a woefully factually uninformed and amateur campaign crew.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Riot

The popular vote and electoral college votes match (except for Gore), so I really don't have problem with that. It does keep us trapped in a two, not three or more, party system.

My point in this thread is that the Romney crowd really, honestly thought they were gonna win, and were truly devastated and shocked when they lost.

But that could have been avoided if they didn't base their hopes and dreams upon deliberately ignoring all the aggregate polling that said Romney could never win the swing states, in favor of one or two polls that were hopeful or showed Romney ahead (while seven others showed him behind)

Two or three points is huge - not "either way", depending upon what polling techniques are used. And the Romney campaign repeatedly embraced faulty technique that told them what they wanted to hear, and deliberately ignored better analysis that told the story of his probable loss months ago.

Look at the angry donors, who were told Romney was a lock by the Romney campaign - based upon bad, bad polling analysis. I'd be angry too. They were not lied to deliberately - they were given bad, bad information from a woefully factually uninformed and amateur campaign crew.

It wasn't as if there weren't credible polls showing Romney tied or ahead in many of the swing states. Polls like Pew, Rasmussen, and Gallup gave Romney a great chance. I knew there were polls that weren't as favorable but I figured Romney had a decent chance. When the economy is not good and the unemployment rate is this high, you would think that many of the undecideds would end up voting for change.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

It wasn't as if there weren't credible polls showing Romney tied or ahead in many of the swing states. Polls like Pew, Rasmussen, and Gallup gave Romney a great chance. I knew there were polls that weren't as favorable but I figured Romney had a decent chance. When the economy is not good and the unemployment rate is this high, you would think that many of the undecideds would end up voting for change.

Yeah, I think the major mistake by the Romney campaign hinged upon their false assumptions on that 2004 turnout model.