If the GOP had gotten out its vote the way it did in 2004, Romney would have won. But there were too many things wrong. Romney never countered the negative ads straight on with ads of his own, while he was being painted as a heartless plutocrat. It would have been very easy to respond to the dirty ads with the truth behind the stories that were being so distorted, ending with pictures of David Axelrod, Stephanie Cutter and Barack Obama--"Is this the kind of politics we expect from the President of the United States?" The party also hurt itself badly with the way it threw itself on its sword for the rich again. The rich don't need the 35% rate; they didn't care about Obama's increase--so that stand was for nothing.