Mitt Romney says he is a numbers guy, but in the end he got the numbers wrong. His campaign was adamant that public polls in the swing states were mistaken. They claimed the pollsters were over-estimating the number of Democrats who would turn out on Election Day. …
When anyone raised the idea that public polls were showing a close race, the campaign’s pollster said the poll modeling was flawed and everyone moved on. Internally, the campaign’s own polling—tweaked to represent their view of the electorate, with fewer Democrats—showed a steady uptick for Romney since the first debate.
Even on the morning of the election, Romney’s senior advisers weren’t close to hedging. They said he was going to win “decisively.” … When Romney lost, “it was like a death in the family.” [cont.]
John Dickerson, Slate
Funny…I just figured Team Romney was spinning the Romney landslide narrative to keep donors giving and prevent volunteers and voters from getting demoralized and staying home. Studies have shown that voters like to go with the winner, and I thought they were trying to avoid having Obama look inevitable. I didn’t realize they actually believed they would win in a landslide. I think until the very end Romney had a chance to win, but if he had it would have been a very narrow victory.