Some Republicans are going to try to sum up President Barack Obama’s re-election this way: black people. Mitt Romney lost because all of the black people voted for Obama. I heard it in 2008 and heard it repeatedly this year. I sum up the president’s victory this way: Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
Just as I felt Al Gore was undone by not winning his home state of Tennessee, Romney was defeated because the man didn’t win three states he is supposedly connected to. Not the state where he was born and raised. Not the state where he’s lived and served as governor. Not even the state where he kicked off his campaign.
There is something to be said about a politician who has no place to call his political home, no core constituency. And when you think about it, Romney being defeated in this fashion makes all the sense in the world. With his cynically shifting positions, he’d been accused of having no moral anchor, and he lost every state that was supposed to be his physical anchor. Adding insult to injury, his running mate, Paul Ryan, didn’t win his home state either.
Republicans of the bitter variety — the kind who like to deface Obama campaign signs with racial epithets — can say Romney lost because of blacks. But the truth is, when the voters who know you best don’t support you, it should come as no surprise when strangers don’t either.
LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs
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