Post Election Observations

From Intellectual Bubblegum, Lessons from the 2012 Presidential election:

Pundits: The people who believe they’ve seen it all didn’t see it coming.

The candidate who’s famous for working with numbers, apparently not so good with Census math.

GOP: Quick! Somebody get copies of Spanish for Dummies! TiVo Chesprito!

MSNBC: Schadenfreude. FOX News: See? Liberals love using foreign words over American ones.

Woooo! This is grea….Oh yea, the fiscal cliff.

Mayans: Sure you don’t want to take another look at our calendar?

Anti-Obama T-shirt makers: Back in business, boys!

Denver Colorado’s “Mile High City” takes on new meaning.

Gay people can now be quietly miserable too in Maryland.

The end of America is apparently upon us, but people still going to Applebees tonight and planning for Christmas

My personal observations have been primarily through the postings and comments sections of other blogs. I've seen blogs go quiet, bloggers publicly and dramatically quit, moderated comments go unapproved....and a distinct theme of blaming everyone and everything except their own party. Libertarians were blamed on more than one blog, even though we didn't tip the scales in any state from Romney to Obama.

Obviously, left leaning blogs seem pretty happy, but the opposition has been lashing out, with few exceptions. Of my daily stops, the more erudite bloggers have made thoughtful inquiries from their readers, as to what went wrong on Election night.

The GOP has lost it's way; not only in regards to what it means to say that you support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...but also as it applies to how it views itself in the American political landscape.

David Frum writes "At a time when the need to broaden the party’s appeal seemed overwhelmingly compelling, Republicans narrowed their appeal to the most ideological fragment of the conservative base."

This was shown in the allegedly skewed polls, their over reliance on pimping the "liberal media" meme, and many of it's most prolific members, such as Florida's Allen West who stated that upwards of 80 members of the Democrat Party are "members of the Communist Party". Without any shred of sourcing...of course.

One conservative luminary offers his advice to the GOP.

George Will,  Nov 9th, 2012:

On Feb. 11, 2011, the person who should have been the Republican nominee laconically warned conservatives about a prerequisite for persuading people to make painful adjustments to a rickety entitlement state. Said Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels: “A more affirmative, ‘better angels’ approach to voters is really less an aesthetic than a practical one. With apologies for the banality, I submit that, as we ask Americans to join us on such a boldly different course, it would help if they liked us, just a bit.” Romney was a diligent warrior. Next time, Republicans need a more likable one.

And one who tilts toward the libertarian side of the Republican Party’s fusion of social and laissez-faire conservatism. Most voters already favor less punitive immigration policies than the ones angrily advocated by clenched-fist Republicans unwilling to acknowledge that immigrating — risking uncertainty for personal and family betterment — is an entrepreneurial act. The speed with which civil unions and same-sex marriage have become debatable topics and even mainstream policies is astonishing. As is conservatives’ failure to recognize this: They need not endorse such policies, but neither need they despise those, such as young people, who favor them. And it is strange for conservatives to turn a stony face toward any reconsideration of drug policies, particularly concerning marijuana, which confirm conservatism’s warnings about government persistence in the teeth of evidence.

I wouldn't place a wager at this juncture, on whether or not the GOP will take that advice.