Why The Republicans (Showing Off) Received Their Well-Deserved - And Self-Inflicted - Head Wound,...Pt. II

Part I is here.

The Christian Broadcasting Network News predictions for the 2012 White House contest:

 Everyone has seen the polls, which show the race to be agonizingly tight. If the national and battleground state polls are over-sampling Democrats, which some conservatives claim, they are probably under-stating Romney's strength. 

If this is true, Romney could win significantly more than 300 electoral votes. 

 • Prediction: At this point, Romney wins Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Wisconsin. President Obama wins Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, giving Romney a 295 to 243 victory.

I had to work late, so I'm getting off to a late start - more rambling:

There are no ways to get around the facts. For Republicans and conservatives and independents who wanted a new direction for our country, the victory of President Obama is sad — and for many of us, unexpected. Those conservatives who assured us with statistics, theories, and arguments about Romney winning the White House, even in a landslide, should be eating their hats. 

In the past week, conservatives who usually disagree with each other about many things, including Fred Barnes, Peggy Noonan, Dick Morris, my PJM colleague Roger Kimball, George F. Will,  Karl Rove, and Michael Barone, among others, provided analysis and arguments, all of which led to predictions of an inevitable Romney victory. Instead of the outcome they all looked forward to and assumed would be inevitable given Obama’s failures and the state of the economy, they found that their theories collapsed as the returns poured in. Instead of a long night, by 11:30 p.m. even Fox News had called the election for the president. Yes, Karl Rove thought their statistics desk called it too early, but 15 minutes later he too agreed that Ohio had gone for the president. 

So what happened? I had been trying to warn my optimistic friends in recent days that I thought Obama would win, and was regularly greeted with a slew of polls meant to prove I was wrong.

Let's start this section with the fact Republicans are too insular. For all the talk of Democrats living in a bubble, the right refuses to admit they're walled off - in their own minds - even to those of us on their side. I know I've got to be their kind of people, and though I've got all the proper credentials - including, some would claim, my own tinfoil hat - as my Mormon friends would say, I've also got "a potty mouth," and this just won't do. Their loss.

As I see it, their priorities are wrong and they're seeing only what they want to see, trying to use peer pressure to orchestrate their schemes. They've never met me, and if they never act as my peers - but only exploiters when it suits them - how well is that going to work out for them in the long run? I've got nothing to lose.

Chris Christie lashes out at 'know-nothing disgruntled Romney staffers' who criticised him for refusing to attend campaign rally with Mitt after Hurricane Sandy.

There's another kind of guy - completely outnumbered - who is more likable, but more importantly, correct more often than the rest. That should be what matters. Who can accurately chart a course out of this mess - and connect with the rest -  not who behaves themselves.

And let's not forget how some Republicans translated the word "post-racial" as "go for the jugular," which resulted in some ugly, and largely unmentioned, behavior that few minded at all. I won't go into it, because it was just stupid - not racist - but the stupid's got to stop. You can't sing, and put your fingers in your ears, expecting this black to stand by your side - or others to come running. Niggas like music, but, come on.

Giving Romney a pass on releasing his tax returns was a "tell." He could do no wrong - his supporters would do no right. Ethics were turned to taffy. Not a convincing start.

Viewers of The Real Housewives Of Miami watched as Adriana De Moura threw punches this week in a vicious fight. 

But the Brazilian beauty has obviously reconnected with her spiritual side, striking the 'tree' pose as she did yoga on Miami beach.

And - oh yeah - here's a simple-but-really-important lesson for all the geniuses out there: 

You do not choose a president based on the economy, or any other single issue. 

The presidency is not a single issue job.

I’ve got egg on my face. I predicted a Romney landslide and, instead, we ended up with an Obama squeaker.  

-- Dick Morris, who's been mailing me nonsense, several times a day, for what seems like forever

And the polls? Republicans treated the polls like messages from Heaven. Polls, like pundits and fact-checkers, mean nothing. Weeks before the election, people making bets in Europe gave Obama a 60% chance of a win - those gamblers, putting their money where their mouth is, should be included as a reliable indicator.

Would somebody please pass the catsup? This crow is awfully dry. 

Yes, I am eating crow. I predicted a 53-47 Romney win. I was wrong, chiefly because, I think, the pollsters were, contrary to my pre-election conviction, using the right turnout models.

All around, the ease with which the right fell for their own side's media manipulations - from the Obama-eats-dog meme to Benghazi - was amazing to behold. Not a lot of skepticism out there.

Republicans chose style over substance - acted like substance was Kryptonite - which didn't help when selling competence. Not even with conservatives. Romney, repeating "I know how to create jobs," wasn't evidence. Where are all those grateful employees who love Mitt so much? Are you seriously going to tell me no one thought of that? (I'm going to need proof Republicans can say their ABCs after this.) We didn't have to vet Romney any further? That one killed me.

“If Romney wins, he will need us to constantly push him in the direction of sanity. If Obama wins, we will need to fight him at every turn. I’m not quitting. Don’t you quit now, either.”

-- Stephen Green, part of the Instapundit crew, before it mattered if anyone was listening

Here's a question: 

 Why choose an insane candidate to begin with - pretending all along he isn't? 

  Isn't that crazy?

The prophecy Romney describes is nutty—for a thousand years, Christ “will reign from two places,” Missouri and Jerusalem—but it’s no nuttier than the Book of Revelation or the parting of the Red Sea.

And can the demonstratively insane push someone equally out there "in the direction of sanity"? The first problem of dealing with nutty folks is getting them to acknowledge they're nutty - and Republicans have proven they don't/won't/can't listen, or learn. As long as money is the only criteria they choose to judge on, that ain't going to work.

There are waaay too many functional idiots out there - and no, I'm not talking about Bill Maher.

I'm not done yet,…