>In terms of the popular vote, as of now Obama has 61,174,297 votes, while Romney has 58,172,063 votes A >difference of 3,002,234, so a fair margin and decisively winning the popular vote for Obama.
The difference is going to be slighly above 2.5% and slightly above the Bush margin over Kerry, but nowhere near the margin he had in '08. > I've got a somewhat different take on it from Dan, I think. The > extreme 'right' in the Republican party is a shrinking minority, > however little they want to admit the fact, and however voluble their > protests to the contrary might be. Rick Perry is an example of the > kind of candidate they would have preferred. He is a weak example, though. He couldn't remember his talking points. And, if you recall, Romney went to the right of him on immigration. The GOP is interesting. I live in a very red state, and Perry better reflects the average GOP voter than Romney. But, he had baggage that would have doomed him in the general election, like appproving people who wanted Texas to seceed from the USA while governor. So, the GOP establishment, which still controls a lot of money, undercut him. And his not being able to remember his own name (OK I'm exaggerating) in a debate didn't help him. I think the GOP establishment is fading, and Ryan is the likely '16 candidate. Remember, this is the party that took down Lugar so they could run a yahoo. They may control the Senate if they let moderate Republicans run. Nate Silver did a great piece on how the moderate GOP senators have mostly left. And the House is dominated by the tea party. One of the problems the Speaker of the House has is that he many not be able to deliver even a third of the party for a compromise on spending cuts/tax increases to decrease the deficit. Remember, the presidential candidates had to agree that even $1 in tax increase for every $10 in spending cuts was unacceptable. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
