Romney Campaign Concedes Defeat In Florida
While it thankfully wasn’t necessary to a determination of the winner of the Electoral College this time around, as of today there still hasn’t been an official winner declared in Florida thanks largely to uncounted absentee ballots. Despite that, President Obama has a lead of roughly 50,000 votes and it was quite apparent as of this morning that Mitt Romney was not going to be overtake him. The only question remaining was whether, after the count was done, the gap between the two candidates would be small enough to trigger an automatic recount under state law. With this announcement from the Romney campaign, it would appear that this won’t be happening regardless of the outcome:
Though votes are still being tallied, President Obama is all but assured a victory in Florida because the lion’s share of the outstanding ballots come from Democratic-heavy counties.
Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney by 55,825 votes — or 49.9 percent to 49.24 — but there just aren’t enough votes from Republican areas to allow the challenger to catch up.
Romney’s Florida campaign has acknowledged he lost in Florida as well. Romney already conceded the national race after he lost the other battleground states.
“The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster, Florida advisor for Romney, said in a statement to The Miami Herald. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I, and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”
With Florida’s 29 Electoral College Votes, Obama will have 332 votes to Romney’s 206
This also means that I ended up one state off in my prediction. I forecast Florida to go to Romney based largely on the RCP average that gave him a slight lead in the state. Oh well. Still, 49 out of 50 isn’t too bad.
About Doug Mataconis
Will anyone hire him again for such a task?
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
You must have succumbed to the liberal-biased reality in making your predictions.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
“Will anyone hire him again for such a task?”
They usually do.
Like or Dislike:
5 
0
I await the analyzed results of the exit polls from Florida. I’d love to find out that Republican voters suppression efforts actually brought more African-Americans and Latinos to the polls.
Like or Dislike:
10 
2
UNSKEW THOSE POLLS!
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
Apparently the Pizza Man will be looking for a back slapper…er…pollster.
Both these guys have the same firm grip on reality!!!
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/herman-cain-time-for-a-third-party/
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Florida ’12 is an example of how and why the Democrats are the varsity team when it comes to politics whereas the GOP is the junior varsity squad.
Republicans have won the past four gubernatorial elections in Fla. They control a large majority of the state’s U.S. House delegation. No less an evil genius idiot than George W. Bush (gulp) won the state less than a decade ago by a margin of 381,000 net ballots.
Romney spent enormous sums of time, effort and money in the state. Well over 100,000 Floridians who voted for Obama in ’08 didn’t vote for him in ’12.
Yet Obama still won the state!
Think about that. That’s pure, unadulterated political muscle and cojones. We can’t admire the Chicago-style tactics, but we do greatly admire the raw political ruthlessness of it all.
Like or Dislike:
2 
9
“Chicago tactics” apparently means “inspiring people to stand in line for hours and vote.”
I had always imagined something more nefarious.
Like or Dislike:
14 
1
You mean like making sure that as many people as possible get to exercise their right to vote, despite concerted efforts to the contrary?
Like or Dislike:
12 
1
I will say, though, that I really dislike Chicago-style pizza.
Like or Dislike:
10 
1
@Anderson:
The Black Panthers weren’t at polling places to intimidate Republican voters, they were there to make sure Democratic voters didn’t leave the lines.
Voter intimidation, but not quite the kind that we all thought.
Like or Dislike:
2 
4
@PJ:
In Florida? You have any source for that, or is that just an offhand remark?
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
@bk: Like I said once before, I’m sure that somewhere in Florida, a black guy wore a leather jacket and beret.
I know there was that guy in Philly, who sure as all heck terrified me, and i am all the way out here in California.
Like or Dislike:
6 
1
@ernieyeball: If that task will be to suppress votes, yes.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
@PJ: You have proof of this besides the guy who *gasp* opened a door for two old ladies, yes?
Like or Dislike:
6 
0
@michael reynolds: This. Please let it be true nationwide as well.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
@Tsar Nicholas: Yeah. Democratic GOTV’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Like or Dislike:
6 
1
Ever so happy that Florida turned out to be irrelevant this year.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
@Fiona:
The people of Florida who stood on line for hours, and had to deal with unprecedented voter suppression are certainly NOT “happy that Florida was irrelevant this time.” Gov Scott is an abject failure, if not guilty of federal election laws, and needs to be replaced.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
@bk: I’m pretty sure that was a joke.
But the fact that Florida went for Obama despite having 3-hour lines in Democratic strongholds suggests that Romney wasn’t really even close to being truly competitive there. Unless the ORCA clusterfvck really did have an impact.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0