Apparently, President Obama’s comically frequent blaming of President George W. Bush for everything that went wrong in his presidency didn’t sound so risible to some voters. From the RNC’s analysis of exit polls (via NBC News):
Voters by a 15 point margin blamed President Bush over President Obama for the state of the economy.
Voters preferred a candidate whose policies favored the “middle class”, and 10% more voters felt Obama’s policies favored the middle class.
Obama’s hurricane response provided a bump. 42% said it was the “most important” or “an important” factor in their vote, and Obama won them by more than a 2:1 margin.
It’s really astonishing to me — and I live in New York City! — that forty-two percent of voters viewed Sandy as an “important” or even more astonishing, the “most important,” issue when it came to their vote. There were plenty of policy divides between Romney and Obama, but I don’t see a President Romney having responded much differently to a hurricane than Obama did.
The RNC also looks at how demographics affected Romney’s outcome in four key states:
Florida – 238,000 more Hispanic voters participated than in 2008 and Obama got 60% of Hispanics.Obama’s margin of victory was 78,000.
Ohio – Romney won independents by 10, but there were more Democrats. African American turnout increased by 178,000 and Obama got 96% of them.Obama’s margin of victory was 103,000.
Virginia – Romney improved with independents (+11), and white voters (+24), but it was not enough.Obama’s margin of victory was 113,000.
Colorado – 147,000 more young voters participated than in 2008, and Obama increased his share of the Hispanic vote from 61% in 2008 to 75% in 2012.Obama’s margin of victory was 113,000.