In the main, I don't think the GOP did so badly in 2012. The House was retained, and Mitt Romney ran very closely in all the battleground states. As a candidate, he was excellent in debate, on the stump and raising money. His team in Boston sadly was not so great, ran vapid TV spots, cloistered the candidate and his VP, and developed no pithy responses to stale Democrat talking points, like "It's still Bush's fault." That said, 2012 posed a severe challenge for any Republican, and it wasn't the demographics. Obama did better in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two oldest and whitest battleground states, than Virginia and Colorado, supposedly hip and Latino. In fact, the era of Mexican illegal immigration is now ending, mostly due to a 30-year collapse in birthrates. (Expect panicky Democrats to cry for an amnesty bill and Ruy Teixeira to start taking Mandarin lessons) What really saved Obama's bacon was the employment recovery in the second half of 2012. As slow as the economy has been, it...(Read Full Post)