Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:20 am
Rachel Maddow blew up the Republican blame of Hurricane Sandy for Romney’s loss by looking at the poll numbers and concluding, ‘You did not lose because of the storm.’
Here is the video:
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Transcript via MSNBC:
Did Hurricane Sandy blunt Mr. Romney’s momentum? Was he on track to win? Here’s how they were running against each other on the most accurate poll in the country on the day before the hurricane. The day of the hurricane, President Obama at 48%, mitt romney at 47%. Look at the five days after the storm hit. Hey, again, President Obama ahead by the exact same 1%. Before Hurricane Sandy, President Obama ahead 1 or 2 points, afterwards, ahead by 1 or 2 points. This is the poll we know in retrospect was totally right. If we believe the polls which we all do now in America and the Ipsos-Reuters poll was the most accurate one in this presidential election proves there was no Romney momentum going into Hurricane Sandy that was moved by the storm. It just didn’t happen and checkable. I’m not saying this to make conservatives feel bad, but to welcome you out of the bubble of denial that is dangerous. I think Haley Barbour is a smart guy. This is not a smart idea. Liberals probably shouldn’t disabuse Republicans of this. If they take out of this election that a hurricane is the only way they didn’t win, Democrats should be psyched about that because Republicans will go campaigning next time with the same kind of candidates and same policies and planning not having a hurricane. Is that their plan? No storm and we will win.
I understand why a guy like Karl Rove would tell his donors this. I didn’t waste your hundreds of millions of dollars. They would have bought you a shiny new president definitely if it weren’t for that darned storm. You definitely need to give me your hundreds of millions of dollars again because there won’t be a hurricane next time. That makes sense for charltons who make their living ing to separate gullible conservatives from their money. Is that the Republicans assess much of what happened here? You did not lose because of the storm, and this election was an endorsement of Barack Obama and did not prove the viability of the Paul Ryan kill Medicare budget, the opposite. What the Republican Party does in response to this information, whether they prove capable of absorbing this information is the next great question of politics of the American right.
The Republicans have been using the storm as a built in excuse since before the Sandy hit. Romney himself showed America how big of a bullet the nation really dodged by blaming the hurricane for his defeat. The idea that it wasn’t the gender gap, the demography, and the ideas being championed by a their party that caused them to lose is a conservative dodge of reality.
Republicans don’t want to own the defeat because it was a cross country repudiation of their ideology. The GOP is trying to make this loss all about the numerous shortcomings of Mitt Romney, but this defeat was a rejection of the party’s obstructionism, war on women, and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Nearly every position that the right has used to shape their first Obama term identity was defeated by the voters in 2012.
The right would rather make excuses than face the fact that they have to change. There probably won’t be hurricane on the week before the election in 2016, which is fine because the hurricane didn’t reelect Barack Obama. Mitt Romney was the name at the top of the ticket, but he wasn’t the biggest loser on Tuesday night. The biggest loser was the entire Republican Party. They read too much into their 2010 victory. The GOP has tacked too far to the right at a time when the country is signaling they want moderation and compromise.
Republicans are trapped in an endless loop of crazy of their own making. Hurricanes come and go, but the post-Bush inspired dysfunction in the Republican Party looks here to stay.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
