November 15, 2012 08:15 PM UTC

If Not For You Meddling Kids, African Americans, and Hispanics

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• by: Colorado Pols

Washington Post, defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney goes all Scooby Doo villain:

Mitt Romney is blaming his loss in the presidential election on “Obamacare” and other “gifts” he says President Obama handed out to African Americans, Hispanics and other core supporters, according to news reports Wednesday.

The defeated Republican candidate told donors in a conference call that Obama targeted those demographics, along with young voters and women, through programs such as health-care reform and “amnesty” for children of illegal immigrants, according to articles posted online by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Both papers appeared to have listened to the call or obtained at least partial transcripts.

In explaining his overwhelming electoral college defeat last week, Romney said Obama followed what he called the “old playbook” of seeking votes from specific interest groups, “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people,” the New York Times said. “In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” he added, according to the paper.

The Los Angeles Times quotes Romney directly:

“With regards to African American voters, ‘Obamacare’ was a huge plus – and was highly motivational to African American voters. You can imagine for somebody making $25-, or $30-, or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free healthcare – particularly if you don’t have it, getting free healthcare worth, what, $10,000 a family, in perpetuity, I mean this is huge. Likewise with Hispanic voters, free healthcare was a big plus.”

Pivoting to immigration, Romney said the Obama campaign’s efforts to paint him as “anti-immigrant” had been effective and that the administration’s promise to offer what he called “amnesty” to the children of undocumented immigrants had helped turn out Latino voters in record numbers.

“With regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for the children of illegals – the so-called Dream Act kids – was a huge plus for that voting group,” he said. “On the negative side, of course, they always characterized us as being anti-immigrant, being tough on illegal immigration, and so forth, so that was very effective with that group.”

Back in September, the presidential race was upended by the release of a secretly-recorded video of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney disparaging roughly 47% of the nation as voters who “believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” And you’ll recall Romney spent the rest of the campaign, a few hiccups aside, trying unsuccessfully to live those disastrous remarks down.

Well folks, the campaign is over, and Romney just confirmed he felt that way all along.

As The Hill reports, Republicans with a future are throwing Romney under the wheels:

A former surrogate for Mitt Romney’s campaign called the former GOP nominee “absolutely wrong” in blaming his recent election loss on President Obama giving “gifts” to black, Hispanic and young voters…

“I absolutely reject that notion,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said Wednesday on a conference call with donors, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t think that represents where we are as a party and where we’re going as a party. And that has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election…”

“We have got to stop dividing the American voters,” he said. [Pols emphasis]

That’s as damning an indictment of the GOP in 2012 as any Democrat could offer. We’ll take Bobby Jindal at his word about where he wants his party to go, but must take issue with the claim that Romney doesn’t represent “where we are as a party.” As in today.

Because for the present, Romney most certainly does.