# Romney campaign: We lost Florida **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402 "2012-11-08T20:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/1 "2012-11-08T20:53:10Z")
A little icing on the cake. [http://www.bradenton.com/2012/11/08/4271001/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida.html](http://www.bradenton.com/2012/11/08/4271001/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida.html) > [@](#): > > Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney by 55,825 votes — or 49.9 percent to 49.24 — but there just aren’t enough votes from Republican areas to allow the challenger to catch up. > > Romney’s Florida campaign has acknowledged their candidate lost in Florida as well. Romney already conceded the national race after he lost the other battleground states. > > “The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster, Florida advisor for Romney, said in a statement. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.” > > With Florida’s 29 Electoral College votes, Obama will have 332 votes to Romney’s 206. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/2 "2012-11-08T20:56:38Z")
I feel like it’s really bad news for republicans that in a very close election, Florida went so narrowly to the Democrat. Florida is usually pretty republican-leaning relative to the rest of the country, right? Didn’t Obama only win it by like 2% in 2008 even though he won nationally by over 7%? Definitely not good news for republicans if Romney really lost Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/3 "2012-11-08T20:59:05Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I feel like it’s really bad news for republicans that in a very close election, Florida went so narrowly to the Democrat. Florida is usually pretty republican-leaning relative to the rest of the country, right? Didn’t Obama only win it by like 2% in 2008 even though he won nationally by over 7%? Secret fact: This election was not, in fact, remotely close, in spite of all the talking heads telling us that it would be. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/4 "2012-11-08T21:06:27Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Secret fact: This election was not, in fact, remotely close, in spite of all the talking heads telling us that it would be. 😉 Certainly not in the electoral college, and even in the popular vote it was a 2.5% spread which is about the same size as Bush II’s 2004 margin. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/5 "2012-11-08T21:11:50Z")
Florida went Democratic five times since 1960 or 33% of the time. Twice for Obama, once for Clinton, once for Carter and once for Johnson. It’s considered a swing state but it doesn’t seem remarkably swingy. I suppose for the EVs, it’s the best bet out of the larger states that you could potentially flip (as opposed to GOP battling for NY/CA or Democrats battling for Texas). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/6 "2012-11-08T21:14:21Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Secret fact: This election was not, in fact, remotely close, in spite of all the talking heads telling us that it would be. 😉 I wonder how many of the conservative pundits who predicted a 330 EV landslide for Romney will now say that Obama narrowly won and has no mandate. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/7 "2012-11-08T21:18:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I wonder how many of the conservative pundits who predicted a 330 EV landslide for Romney will now say that Obama narrowly won and has no mandate. Didn’t they say that after the LAST election? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/8 "2012-11-08T21:22:10Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I wonder how many of the conservative pundits who predicted a 330 EV landslide for Romney will now say that Obama narrowly won and has no mandate. I think Charles Krauthammer has already had that tattooed on his forehead. It was his big consolation point on Fox ‘News’ about ten minutes after they called the whole shootin’ match for Obama. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/9 "2012-11-08T21:25:04Z")
I consider the 2004 election to be pretty close too. Obama got just over 50% of the vote this time… that’s pretty close. I admit it’s not razor-thin close… but anyway, it’s just my subjective definition of a “close election.” I just think that with demographics going the way that they are, Florida is going to become even less swingier than it already is and more and more reliably democratic. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/10 "2012-11-08T21:27:24Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > (Democrats battling for Texas). Obama carried [Travis county (pdf)](http://www.traviscountyclerk.org/eclerk/content/images/election_results/2012.11.06/Run08/20121106tccume.pdf) quite handily so there is hope. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/11 "2012-11-08T21:27:27Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I wonder how many of the conservative pundits who predicted a 330 EV landslide for Romney will now say that Obama narrowly won and has no mandate. Somebody here paged [Dick Morris](http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/07/dick-morris-explains-why-was-wrong-about-2012-election/)? “I’ve got egg on my face. I predicted a Romney landslide and, instead, we ended up with an Obama squeaker.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/12 "2012-11-08T21:30:57Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > Somebody here paged [Dick Morris](http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/07/dick-morris-explains-why-was-wrong-about-2012-election/)? > > “I’ve got egg on my face. I predicted a Romney landslide and, instead, we ended up with an Obama squeaker.” That’s hysterical. His Romney landslide prediction was: 325 EV’s. Obama’s squeaker of a win: 332 EV’s. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/13 "2012-11-08T21:33:20Z")
> [@bup](#): > > That’s hysterical. His Romney landslide prediction was: 325 EV’s. > > Obama’s squeaker of a win: 332 EV’s. That is quite entertaining. 300+ EV is only a landslide if a republican wins it. For a Democrat, that just barely passes muster. In fact, we should probably amend the constitution to require at least 330 EV for a democrat to get elected. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/14 "2012-11-08T21:35:47Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I consider the 2004 election to be pretty close too. So do I, but it’s fairly “run of the mill” as US presidential elections seem to go when there’s no third party. IIRC intrade was referring to the possibility of a 10% spread in the popular vote as a “landslide”. I also recall some prominent righties referring to Bush II’s margins as “huge” in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/15 "2012-11-08T21:39:39Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > So do I, but it’s fairly “run of the mill” as US presidential elections seem to go when there’s no third party. IIRC intrade was referring to the possibility of a 10% spread in the popular vote as a “landslide”. > > I also recall some prominent righties referring to Bush II’s margins as “huge” in 2004. I frankly doubt we will ever see a 10% spread in the popular vote again, in the hyper-partisan, very distinct two parties we have now. In the past, a 10% spread was rare enough. Nowadays I think it’s impossible. I say that 7% or so counts as a landslide, as we had in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/16 "2012-11-08T21:40:37Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Obama’s squeaker of a win: 332 EV’s. If just two states had switched from Obama to Romney, we’d have President Mitt being inaugurated in January. You’re going to tell me that’s not close? And so what if Romney lost California by 20 points. _That’s still one state!!1!_ ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/17 "2012-11-08T21:41:36Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > In the past, a 10% spread was rare enough. Nowadays I think it’s impossible. I say that 7% or so counts as a landslide, as we had in 2008. Exactly, and given that, I say that 2.5%, or “more than a third of a landslide” counts as a “none too shabby”. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/18 "2012-11-08T21:44:52Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Exactly, and given that, I say that 2.5%, or “more than a third of a landslide” counts as a “none too shabby”. Fair enough. I see your point. I obviously disagree that the 2012 election was a “squeaker”. I think Obama won by a close, but comfortable margin. I admit I’m being kind of inconsistent, hehe. The point I was making about Florida stands, I think. Maybe not though. I guess if it were closer than it was, it would have gone to Romney. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/19 "2012-11-08T21:45:19Z")
The difference between “squeaker” and “landslide” has nothing to do with numbers people. It’s all about parties. A Democratic win is a squeaker, and a Republican win is a landslide. Don’t you guys know anything? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402/20 "2012-11-08T21:47:07Z")
And with that, Nate Silver’s state-by-state projection turns out to have been 100% accurate. I guess facts and data really _are_ more reliable than gut feelings. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-campaign-we-lost-florida/640402.md?page=2)