And you think he would have won?
Romney had more" Republican" votes than McCain according to exit polling, and according to the same exit polling, Romney got crushed by double digits among self described "moderates".
How did he insult them?
His campaign missed a lot of key opportunities, no argument here -- but the campaign you describe is what Newt Gingrich did in the primary -- and Republican primary voters (typically the most conversative of the bunch) rejected him soundly.
Exit polling showed that was indeed the biggest issue voters were concerned about -- but it also showed 4 in 10 thought the economy was improving -- and Obama took that group with 88% of the vote.
I have never stated that he ran a good campaign -- you made that up. I do believe he was hurt by his lurch to the right in the primary. We of course got slammed by the black vote, the hispanic vote, and the asian vote by huge margins -- lost by double digits with "moderates" -- although we did do slight better with "independents".
All that combines for a loss. Targeting the base does not make up any ground with moderates, blacks, hispanics, maybe a little with Asians -- the votes just are not there. In my opinion, to win in the future we need to make some serious inroads in the hispanic community, the asian community, and those who would ID themselves as moderates.
This doesn't mean ignore the base -- but it certainly doesn't show (to me) that lurching back and focusing on the far right is a future path to victory.
