Republican Party to Romney: “Get Lost!”

How drastically things can change in just a few short days. Following Mitt Romney’s defeat on Nov. 6, the Republican Party now has only one pressing desire: for their candidate to go back to his San Diego home and lie low. Despite winning the votes of 59 million people, the party has turned its back on its candidate with rare alacrity. Much like Nixon after his departure from the White House, Romney is persona non grata within his own party.

On the night of the defeat that shook him so violently, Romney slipped away, allowing time only for a short speech in Boston to a party headquarters barely one-third full. Though, it was not before uttering, as is his wont, a comment that laid bare his state of mind. His analysis of the cause of his defeat: Obama gave presents to the blacks and the Hispanics! Not only do his comments reveal his total lack of political sensitivity, they also show that his remarks about the 47 percent were no accidental blunder, but a true reflection of the Mormon’s scorn for a section of the electorate. “You can’t expect to be leader of all the people and be divisive,” remarked the well-liked New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who withdrew his support for Romney just before the election.

This bizarre and crass comment was part of the reason that Republicans were so quick to abandon Romney’s sinking ship. They now understand that it will be a good while before they see the inside of the White House if they fail to garner the votes of these “minorities.” Only one constituency voted in a majority for the Republican candidate: white males of mostly more advanced years. All the rest of the electorate fell in behind Obama.

The remark reveals another facet of the personality of the financier turned presidential candidate: his inability to analyze the reasons for his defeat. For him, the failings of others must be responsible for his loss; it’s impossible that it might be down to any errors he himself may have committed. Americans have no time for bad losers or those who blame others instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. For this reason, Mitt Romney’s political future is in a dark place, at least within the Republican Party, which, instead of choosing the best possible candidate, may well have chosen the worst.