Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
It's pretty clear that based on State polling and the EV count that Romney's odds of winning Tuesay are a long shot. Intrade has Obama odds at 67.7 and 538 has Obamas odds at 83.7%.
So in a campaign rife with mistakes what was Romney's biggest mistake?
I'd argue that it was selecting Paul Ryan over Rob Portman. Here Romney committed the same mistake McCain did. He nominated a far right running mate as a SOP to the wingnut base (to Ryan's credit at least he's qualified to hold high office). In a campaign where running to the middle would have gained him far more why would he chose a running mate with the extreme views Ryan has? It doesn't make sense. Also, it's been clear for quite some time that Ohio is the tipping point State in the EV count. So here you have a popular Senator in Ohio, one that is fairly moderate, well spoken and certainly qualified to be President that would have gone a long way towards winning Ohio. Though Romney has made some huge mistakes, i.e. "Let Detroit go bankrupt.", "I support the Blount Ammendment.", "I don't care about the 47%.", allowing Obama to to define him as the outsourcing profiteer from Bain, "Chrysler is moving to China." the biggest one was choosng Ryan over Portman.
With Ryan as a running mate he's polarized women voters who don't trust him on reproductive rights and seniors who don't trust him with the voucherization of Medicare. All this to gain support of the right wing base? It's just stupid!
Hell the only thing Portman had going against him was his stint as Bush's trade negotiator but he sure as hell doesn't bring the baggage Ryan brought to the campaign and he would have significantly improved Romney's odds of winning Ohio nor would he have been nearly as polarizing as Ryan is on womens reproductive rights, medicare and deficit reduction negotiations.
If Obama wins the Election by 18 or less EV's and wins Ohio than this will certainly have been Mitt's biggest mistake.
So in a campaign rife with mistakes what was Romney's biggest mistake?
I'd argue that it was selecting Paul Ryan over Rob Portman. Here Romney committed the same mistake McCain did. He nominated a far right running mate as a SOP to the wingnut base (to Ryan's credit at least he's qualified to hold high office). In a campaign where running to the middle would have gained him far more why would he chose a running mate with the extreme views Ryan has? It doesn't make sense. Also, it's been clear for quite some time that Ohio is the tipping point State in the EV count. So here you have a popular Senator in Ohio, one that is fairly moderate, well spoken and certainly qualified to be President that would have gone a long way towards winning Ohio. Though Romney has made some huge mistakes, i.e. "Let Detroit go bankrupt.", "I support the Blount Ammendment.", "I don't care about the 47%.", allowing Obama to to define him as the outsourcing profiteer from Bain, "Chrysler is moving to China." the biggest one was choosng Ryan over Portman.
With Ryan as a running mate he's polarized women voters who don't trust him on reproductive rights and seniors who don't trust him with the voucherization of Medicare. All this to gain support of the right wing base? It's just stupid!
Hell the only thing Portman had going against him was his stint as Bush's trade negotiator but he sure as hell doesn't bring the baggage Ryan brought to the campaign and he would have significantly improved Romney's odds of winning Ohio nor would he have been nearly as polarizing as Ryan is on womens reproductive rights, medicare and deficit reduction negotiations.
If Obama wins the Election by 18 or less EV's and wins Ohio than this will certainly have been Mitt's biggest mistake.
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