Even with $650 million dollars in play, 1.5 million paid workers, 3.5 million netroots, a complicit media, and Sturm und Drang, The One apparently couldn’t pump the vote. From CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new report from American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate concludes that voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was the same in percentage terms as it was four years ago — or at most has risen by less than 1 percent.
The report released Thursday estimates that between 126.5 and 128.5 million Americans cast ballots in the presidential election earlier this week. Those figures represent 60.7 percent or, at most, 61.7 percent of those eligible to vote in the country.
And who were the missing voters? Republicans.
“A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout,” the report said. Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008.
As usual, the ‘experts’ were fooled by the Sturm und Drang, much of it generated by the Obama campaign itself.
“Many people were fooled (including this student of politics although less so than many others) by this year’s increase in registration (more than 10 million added to the rolls), citizens’ willingness to stand for hours even in inclement weather to vote early, the likely rise in youth and African American voting, and the extensive grassroots organizing network of the Obama campaign into believing that turnout would be substantially higher than in 2004,” Curtis Gans, the center’s director, said in the report. “But we failed to realize that the registration increase was driven by Democratic and independent registration and that the long lines at the polls were mostly populated by Democrats.”
The first numbers on Wednesday highlighted the phenomenon of the ‘missing Republican’. Clearly, conservative Republicans sat out the election. They were disgusted by the excesses of Congress and deeply angry with John McCain.
The entire American University report is here (and probably subject to revision over time).
There’s a lesson here for Republicans: that steady reliance on conservative principles – not ‘bipartisanship’ – is what wins elections. And you ignore the ‘unwashed’ base at your peril.
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