Third: The Way Forward for the Republicans

As Republicans we have clearly fallen short.  Not only were Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan not elected, but Republican candidates lost up and down the ballot from all wings of the party.  From the socially conservative Indiana and Missouri Senate candidates, to Mia Love of Utah who surely must have a bright future in Utah and potentially national politics.  

There is a case to be made that Romney-Ryan could have won Tuesday night had our turnout operation been better.  The margins of victory in Florida, Virginia, and Ohio were all well within the ground-game-range (3 points).  There are multiple media accounts of our turn-out attempts and turn-out results which I will not comment on here.  And so there is a legitimate possibility that we lost a tactical battle and not the ideological war.  

But you can also see that late-deciding independents broke for President Obama, and there simply are not enough old white men to sustain the GOP in its current form.  

I am personally offended when people paint the Republican party as anti-women, anti-minority, anti-gay, etc.  We sincerely believe that the principles of limited government, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and a strong military will help all Americans better than more government programs,  and economic stimuli.  

As Republicans, we need to modernize on a few issues and better communicate our beliefs and our results on the vast majority of our key platforms.  We don't need to shut-down.  Not when a majority of Americans thing government is too big, or when they think we're headed in the wrong direction.  We need better messaging, better relations with the media, and better ground game operations.  

America needs a credible Republican party just as much as it needs a President Obama to make real accomplishments in the next 4 years.  Let's get to work.