Romney: Obama won with 'gifts' to certain voters
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is telling top donors that President Barack Obama won re-election because of the "gifts" he had already provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters and because of the president's effort to paint Romney as anti-immigrant.
"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."
Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country." He said he faced problems as a candidate because he was "getting beat up" by the Obama campaign and that the debates allowed him to come back.
In the call, Romney didn't acknowledge any major missteps, such as his "47 percent" remarks widely viewed as denigrating nearly half of Americans, his lack of support for the auto bailout, his call for illegal immigrants to "self-deport," or his change in position on abortion, gun control and other issues. He also didn't address the success or failure of the campaign's strategy of focusing on the economy in the face of some improvement in employment and economic growth during the months leading up to Election Day.
Obama won the popular vote by about 3.5 million votes, or 3 percent, and won the Electoral College by a wide margin, 332-206 electoral votes. Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks showed that Obama led Romney by 11 percentage points among women and won better than 7 of 10 Hispanic voters and more than 9 of 10 black voters.
Romney called his loss to Obama a disappointing result that he and his team had not expected, but he said he believed his team had run a superb campaign. He said he was trying to turn his thoughts to the future, "but, frankly, we're still so troubled by the past, it's hard to put together our plans for the future."
Romney's finance team organized the call to donors. A person who listened to Romney's call provided details about it to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the call was private. The Los Angeles Times first reported Romney's remarks.
Among the "gifts" Romney cited were free health care "in perpetuity," which he said was highly motivational to black and Hispanic voters as well as for voters making $25,000 to $35,000 a year.
Romney also said the administration's promise to offer what he called "amnesty" to the children of illegal immigrants — what he termed "the so-called DREAM Act kids" — helped send Hispanics to the polls for Obama.
Young voters, Romney said, were motivated by the administration's plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and being able to remain on their parents' health insurance plans. Young women had an additional incentive to vote for Obama because of free contraception coverage under the president's health care plan, he said.
"I'm very sorry that we didn't win," he told donors. "I know that you expected to win. We expected to win. We were disappointed; we hadn't anticipated it."
Romney said he and his team were discussing how his donor group could remain connected and have an influence on the direction of the Republican Party and even the selection of a future nominee — "which, by the way, will not be me."
Asked about Romney's remarks, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential contender for the GOP nomination in 2016, strongly condemned those in the GOP who classify voters based on income, race or age and said the party cannot concede wide swaths of voters and expect to win elections.
"We have got to stop dividing the American voters," Jindal told reporters in Las Vegas, where the Republican Governors Association was meeting. "We need to go after 100 percent of the vote, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote."
"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."
Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country." He said he faced problems as a candidate because he was "getting beat up" by the Obama campaign and that the debates allowed him to come back.
In the call, Romney didn't acknowledge any major missteps, such as his "47 percent" remarks widely viewed as denigrating nearly half of Americans, his lack of support for the auto bailout, his call for illegal immigrants to "self-deport," or his change in position on abortion, gun control and other issues. He also didn't address the success or failure of the campaign's strategy of focusing on the economy in the face of some improvement in employment and economic growth during the months leading up to Election Day.
Obama won the popular vote by about 3.5 million votes, or 3 percent, and won the Electoral College by a wide margin, 332-206 electoral votes. Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks showed that Obama led Romney by 11 percentage points among women and won better than 7 of 10 Hispanic voters and more than 9 of 10 black voters.
Romney called his loss to Obama a disappointing result that he and his team had not expected, but he said he believed his team had run a superb campaign. He said he was trying to turn his thoughts to the future, "but, frankly, we're still so troubled by the past, it's hard to put together our plans for the future."
Romney's finance team organized the call to donors. A person who listened to Romney's call provided details about it to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the call was private. The Los Angeles Times first reported Romney's remarks.
Among the "gifts" Romney cited were free health care "in perpetuity," which he said was highly motivational to black and Hispanic voters as well as for voters making $25,000 to $35,000 a year.
Romney also said the administration's promise to offer what he called "amnesty" to the children of illegal immigrants — what he termed "the so-called DREAM Act kids" — helped send Hispanics to the polls for Obama.
Young voters, Romney said, were motivated by the administration's plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and being able to remain on their parents' health insurance plans. Young women had an additional incentive to vote for Obama because of free contraception coverage under the president's health care plan, he said.
"I'm very sorry that we didn't win," he told donors. "I know that you expected to win. We expected to win. We were disappointed; we hadn't anticipated it."
Romney said he and his team were discussing how his donor group could remain connected and have an influence on the direction of the Republican Party and even the selection of a future nominee — "which, by the way, will not be me."
Asked about Romney's remarks, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential contender for the GOP nomination in 2016, strongly condemned those in the GOP who classify voters based on income, race or age and said the party cannot concede wide swaths of voters and expect to win elections.
"We have got to stop dividing the American voters," Jindal told reporters in Las Vegas, where the Republican Governors Association was meeting. "We need to go after 100 percent of the vote, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote."
Hey Ro-Money: waaaaawaaaaaa.....ppphhhfffff...loser
The GOP did not expect to lose because they thought the corruption they have practiced for years would work...and it failed thank god. The GOP corruption is know world wide so much so that we had bi partisan persons sent to watch the voting polls on election day to ensure our voting rights were not violated, WOW what does that say about Ro-Money? His wealth and connections, backing by the big bucks did not buy this election and they stayed in their bubble of faux news and their own polls and never bothered to look outside the bubble to see what the rest of the country was doing.
Ro-Money was not fit to be president in many many ways and his backer knew that...they just needed someone to be able to sign this country into a deeper slavery to those that have been working on total domination. Yes they were blind sided, by their own blindness...there is strength in numbers and this election proved that!
What a sore loser,thought he was done with all things political,but he never could quite make up his mind about where he stood on the issues. They lost because of that,and the fact that they didn't really have any better solutions than the democrats. They are all rotten,this two party BS is going to ruin this nation. It looked good for Romney the first hour that the results came in,then Obama won by a landslide,and very telling when he won Florida. Everything Romney wanted to do would have been a disaster for people who are not millionaires. It's almost as if the GOP wanted Obama to win,all the crazy things said leading up to the election,the refusal to release his tax returns,he just looked shady and dishonest,and he sure got no help from many of the republicans running for offices. All problems pointed out during the election do exist,dealing with them the way the GOP wanted to just wouldn't have worked. The GOP really needs to change it's image and message. The super rich and the super ignorant seem to be the face of the GOP. I think what everyone needs to take away from this election is that extremism isn't going to get you into office. We are headed down the tubes,and until all the two party BS stops that's where we are headed.
Yep ,without illegal aliens and parasitic black people, he would have not had a chance.... I gotta admit, bribing inner city crackheads with free cellphones for votes was pretty smart though.