2012 Presidential Election Thread

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Great article, one point I thought I would draw out:

Why was every candidate so terrible? Normally I'd say it's because none of the really good candidates wanted to run against an incumbent, but I see you guys saying things like "they had a softball and whiffed." If it was truly that easy to oust the current president, why didn't "better" candidates step up?

I made those comments in hindsight, and they were more about how many votes the Romney lost than Pres. Obama lost. I don't think the Republican party ever thought they wouldn't have an increase in turnout in this election, and that's why they were so confident.

As for bad candidates, I think that can be attributed to 1) self-promotion, and 2) the misguided idea that taking a hard right turn in the social realm of politics would push up Republican turnout.