Here’s the place to pre-emptively post the excuses that one side or the other will use for why their preferred candidate lost.
Try to keep the responses at least somewhat serious. (come on, at least try)
I’ll start:
Obama: Voter suppression tactics by the Republicans kept many voters from the polls. If these voters had not been intimidated, Obama would have won.
Romney: Hurricane Sandy kept Romney from executing his masterful end-game plan, wherein he would have rolled out a storm of his own that would have swept him to power.
Obama: GOP obstruction kept the economic recovery in check which created fundamentals too difficult to overcome.
Romney: Electing a wishy-washy former moderate is no way to win an election. A true conservative ™ would have won easily. (Cue Lindsay Graham’s head exploding).
Obama: Winning re-election during economic crisis is always an uphill battle.
Romney: Winning election against an incumbant is always an uphill battle.
Obama supporters: Obama blew the election in Denver.
Romney supporters: We were looking ahead to 2016 anyway. Let the Dems keep having to deal with this mess.
The only way the “not conservative enough” thing will fly is if the GOP wins the Senate and adds more Tea Partiers to the caucus. That is at least possible even if Romney loses, so it is also plausible.
Liberals: Obama really won. All the polling proves it. Republicans stole the election. Tagg Romney owns the company that makes the voting machines etc.
Conservatives: Romney was not a true conservative. Had a true conservative been nominated, conservative voters would have emerged by the millions from their secret hiding places and voted him in. But as it is, they stayed home.
Democrats: It’s Big Money from Big Business and Fat Cat Rich Guys. Sheldon Adelson, Koch brothers. Conservatives on the USSC struck down McCain-Feingold to help out their team.
Republicans: The Liberal Media was in the tank for Obama. Biased fact-checkers, debate moderators etc.
I’m plumping for the anti-excuse: that Big Money didn’t win. With the hope that next time out, when Darth Rove goes around with his diamond-studded begging bowl, he’ll get more of “Well, we all love your work, but is it really cost effective?”
