By Avery Wright
“When something sounds too good to be true….” You know the rest. Was that Mitt Romney's problem? Did he sound too good to be true?
A look at the exit pole numbers is quite revealing.
Remember “It's the economy stupid”? That phrase is supposed to guide all campaigns to victory, and many pundits predicted the economy would be President Obama's Achilles heel. But while 77% of voters said the economy is still in bad shape only 49% of them trusted Romney to lead a turn around effort… Really?
Isn't Romney the boy wonder of Bain Capital? Shouldn't his business and gubernatorial record make him a shoe in for the White House? Not according the majority of American voters.
So why wasn't it “the economy stupid”?
Perhaps the more telling number was a 10-point margin favoring Obama seen as “in touch” with average Americans. Think about what that means.
Romney has been in one marriage only and that to his high school sweetheart, never involved in any sort of philandering or scandal, has virtually lived the Boy Scout Oath and Motto, prays daily, reads scriptures, pays tithes, helps the needy, is wildly successful and strikingly handsome… and that's “out of touch” with the average American.
President Obama, on the other hand…well let's just say if the intel is correct he makes Eddy Haskell look like a “Saint.”
So, Romney is the faithfully married to my sweetheart candidate and yet women favored Obama by 11 points? Married men favored Romney by 60-38 percent while unmarried women more aligned with Obama on social and role-of-government issues, backed the incumbent by 67-31 percent.
So what are we, better yet who are we in America? The exit polling may be telling us that we are more akin to “Roseanne's” family that the Cleavers. Ironically Roseanne grew up in Salt Lake as a Mormon, albeit a Jewish Mormon.
The latest studies say we are on track for a 50% divorce rate. Not only that but 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce. Try this one; Unmarried couples made up 12% of U.S. couples in 2010, a 25% increase in 10 years, according to the latest Census data.
And while the Romney's have a beautiful traditional, Norman Rockwell sort of family, the rest of America is quite different. The birthrate among unmarried women in their 20s and 30s has soared, rising 34 percent since 2002. In 2007, women in their 20s had 60 percent of all babies born out of wedlock, teenagers had 23 percent and women 30 and older had 17 percent.
Mitt's biggest vice maybe coffee flavored ice cream, but by some reports more than 100 million Americans have experimented with marijuana and harder drugs.
Another confusing number; by 52-46% voters said the country is “seriously off on the wrong track.” Yet President Obama was elected with 52% of the vote.
Here is why. A whopping majority of voters did not believe that Romney cared about them. Remember the 47% remark? That may have resonated far more powerfully that anyone expected. President Obama beat's Romney in that category by 63%.
Seniors, who long for the “Good old days” favored Romney by 12 points, 56-44 percent.
The point of running for an office is to win. And if history and statistics tell us anything it's that voters vote for candidates they perceive to be most like themselves. So it's not really Romney's billions that set him apart from the rest of U.S. (although it's that too) it's more about his “too good to be true” life style. Just ask any Mormon Bishop, he'll tell you even among most Mormons Romney just doesn't look like the rest of us.
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