A week after losing the presidential election to President Barack
Obama, Mitt Romney blamed his electoral loss on what he said were
big "gifts" that the president had bestowed on loyal Democratic
constituencies -- including young voters, African-Americans and
Hispanics.
In a conference call on Wednesday with his national finance
committee, Romney said the president had followed the "old playbook"
of wooing specific interest groups -- "especially the African-
American community, the His-panic community and young people" --
with targeted gifts and initiatives.
"In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those
groups," Romney said.
"With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of
college loan interest, was a big gift," he said. "Free
contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And
then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as
you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to
be part of their parents' (health insurance) plan, and that was a
big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger
share in this election even than in 2008."
The president's health care plan, he added, was also a useful
tool in mobilizing African-American and Hispanic voters. Though
Romney won the white vote with 59 percent, according to exit polls,
minorities coalesced around the president in overwhelming numbers:
93 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics voted to re-elect
Obama.
"You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or
$35,000 a year, being told you're now going to get free health care,
particularly if you don't have it, getting free health care worth,
what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge,"
Romney said. "Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a
big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the
amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was
a huge plus for that voting group."
In the 20-minute call, Romney was by turns disappointed and
pragmatic, expressing his frustration that he'd failed to defeat
Obama on Election Day.
"I'm very sorry that we didn't win," he said on the call. "I know
that you expected to win, we expected to win, we were disappointed
with the result, we hadn't anticipated it, and it was very close but
close doesn't count in this business."
