A bunch of us at Harvard think the IRS handed Obama his re-election

[velvtacheeze]

Nixon only dreamed of using the IRS against his enemies during an election cycle... Barack Obama actually DID it.

Just add it to the list of impeachable offense piling up on this MOST corrupt White House in American history.

I see you're still cringe-inducingly stupid.

Obama is President because his predecessor was awful. Memories of President Bush's flops and failures made voters want to keep McCain and Romney from continuing the epic Bush failures.

Just think how bogged down in Syria we'd be right now if the GOP won either election instead.

Obama is president because a lazy MSM fell dizzy in lust in his lap, and have never dared to peeked out since. They completely failed to do their jobs, vetting him as any past candidate had been vetted, and the increasing numbers of mouth-breathing/drool-stained dolts like you in the voting booth only aided the SEIU voter fraud and IRS opposition-suppression.

Just think of how prosperous America would be now if Mitt had won, repealed the job-killing ACA and reduced taxes and gov't, making America back into the Founder's dream?

Instead, we have been economically stalled for 5 years, face ever-increasing HC bills and energy costs, and have record numbers of folks on food stamps, unemployment, and disability, as well as living in their parent's basements, like you.

Your alternative version of what a Romney Presidency would be like is laughable. Pure fantasy.

Mitt would have restarted the failed Bush polices of recession and endless war. We would still be in Iraq, we'd be bogged down in Syria and also at war with Iran.

We know this because this is what the GOP has called for.

 

[Amelia]

I see you're still cringe-inducingly stupid.

Obama is President because his predecessor was awful. Memories of President Bush's flops and failures made voters want to keep McCain and Romney from continuing the epic Bush failures.

Just think how bogged down in Syria we'd be right now if the GOP won either election instead.

Sooo...Obama is a shitty President, and it's BUSH'S fault.

Thanks for affirming tap's claim that Obama is unaccountable.

Obama is a great President, having undone as much of the damage wrought by Bush as he can. That's why he was reelected.

If McCain won, we'd be in Iraq still, bogged down in Syria, and at war with Iran too.

If Obama had been able to do what he wanted, we would be in Iraq still. We're only not in Iraq because Obama lacked the leadership skills to accomplish his goals for a continued U.S. presence there.

We're on our way to Syria now, with no path to progress because Obama doesn't want to be there but he's let himself be dragged into it.

If McCain had won, we wouldn't have had the ACA so the stimulus McCain would have advocated would have had a chance to give us a robust recovery.


The one good thing about Obama winning is the possibility of immigration reform. If he had kept his promise to put his weight behind immigration reform legislation in his first year, we might have had that and NOT had the ACA debacle, and he might actually have been a good president.

But as late as he was to make moves toward immigration reform, it's still a good thing, and probably wouldn't have happened with a Republican president.

 

[tap4154]

I see you're still cringe-inducingly stupid.

Obama is President because his predecessor was awful. Memories of President Bush's flops and failures made voters want to keep McCain and Romney from continuing the epic Bush failures.

Just think how bogged down in Syria we'd be right now if the GOP won either election instead.

Sooo...Obama is a shitty President, and it's BUSH'S fault.

Thanks for affirming tap's claim that Obama is unaccountable.

Obama is a great President, having undone as much of the damage wrought by Bush as he can. That's why he was reelected.

If McCain won, we'd be in Iraq still, bogged down in Syria, and at war with Iran too.

McCain wasn't my choice. I would have put Palin at the top (if given a choice) and voted for Huckabee in the CA primary, but that's long ago.

America had a GREAT opportunity last year with Mitt, who really could have gotten America back on track, off the dirt road to tin pot malaise and a morbidly obese gov't, as Ben Carson calls it, but thanks to Obama siccing the IRS on the opposition during an election cycle, and advent of the Low Information Voters/Julias like you, we took a VERY wrong turn.

The local union community organizer/agitator with zero business or leadership experience, aka the "Barry the Post Turtle", got his slimy hands back on the wheel and we will pay the price, unless we take away the keys!

November 2014 can't come fast enough!

 

[rdean]

Nixon only dreamed of using the IRS against his enemies during an election cycle... Barack Obama actually DID it.

Just add it to the list of impeachable offense piling up on this MOST corrupt White House in American history.

I see you're still cringe-inducingly stupid.

Obama is President because his predecessor was awful. Memories of President Bush's flops and failures made voters want to keep McCain and Romney from continuing the epic Bush failures.

Just think how bogged down in Syria we'd be right now if the GOP won either election instead.

Obama is president because a lazy MSM fell dizzy in lust in his lap, and have never dared to peeked out since. They completely failed to do their jobs, vetting him as any past candidate had been vetted, and the increasing numbers of mouth-breathing/drool-stained dolts like you in the voting booth only aided the SEIU voter fraud and IRS opposition-suppression.

Just think of how prosperous America would be now if Mitt had won, repealed the job-killing ACA and reduced taxes and gov't, making America back into the Founder's dream?

Instead, we have been economically stalled for 5 years, face ever-increasing HC bills and energy costs, and have record numbers of folks on food stamps, unemployment, and disability, as well as living in their parent's basements, like you.

Why are these right wingers so intent on "dumb". Romney was a "Pioneer of outsourcing". He moved one of his companies to China the very month of the election.

An Illinois plant with the majority owned by Mitt Romney is shipping jobs to China

Here he is talking about immigrants with degrees:



And here he is saying he would cut teachers:



I'm tired of these right wingers IMAGINING what would happen under Romney.

Move jobs to China

Cut teachers

Bring in immigrants with degrees

I'm guessing he believed that anyone who voted for him was too damn stupid to teach. What else could it be?

 

[rdean]

Sooo...Obama is a shitty President, and it's BUSH'S fault.

Thanks for affirming tap's claim that Obama is unaccountable.

Obama is a great President, having undone as much of the damage wrought by Bush as he can. That's why he was reelected.

If McCain won, we'd be in Iraq still, bogged down in Syria, and at war with Iran too.

If Obama had been able to do what he wanted, we would be in Iraq still. We're only not in Iraq because Obama lacked the leadership skills to accomplish his goals for a continued U.S. presence there.

We're on our way to Syria now, with no path to progress because Obama doesn't want to be there but he's let himself be dragged into it.

If McCain had won, we wouldn't have had the ACA so the stimulus McCain would have advocated would have had a chance to give us a robust recovery.


The one good thing about Obama winning is the possibility of immigration reform. If he had kept his promise to put his weight behind immigration reform legislation in his first year, we might have had that and NOT had the ACA debacle, and he might actually have been a good president.

But as late as he was to make moves toward immigration reform, it's still a good thing, and probably wouldn't have happened with a Republican president.

Robust economy doing what?

In this day and age, you need education. Republicans think education is for snobs and their leaders want to bring in immigrants with degrees and cut education. I'm guessing because they think the GOP base is stupid. What else could it be? How can right wingers keep advocating this? How can they not get it?

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

Sooo...Obama is a shitty President, and it's BUSH'S fault.

Thanks for affirming tap's claim that Obama is unaccountable.

Obama is a great President, having undone as much of the damage wrought by Bush as he can. That's why he was reelected.

If McCain won, we'd be in Iraq still, bogged down in Syria, and at war with Iran too.

If Obama had been able to do what he wanted, we would be in Iraq still. We're only not in Iraq because Obama lacked the leadership skills to accomplish his goals for a continued U.S. presence there.

We're on our way to Syria now, with no path to progress because Obama doesn't want to be there but he's let himself be dragged into it.

If McCain had won, we wouldn't have had the ACA so the stimulus McCain would have advocated would have had a chance to give us a robust recovery.


The one good thing about Obama winning is the possibility of immigration reform. If he had kept his promise to put his weight behind immigration reform legislation in his first year, we might have had that and NOT had the ACA debacle, and he might actually have been a good president.

But as late as he was to make moves toward immigration reform, it's still a good thing, and probably wouldn't have happened with a Republican president.

Hmmm.

A lie followed by fantasy.

Must be catscratch fever week in nutball land.

Again.

 

[JohnL.Burke]

You lost because the majority of Americans did not like your vision of the future. And we still don't.

No. We lost because Obama effectively disabled the opposition...just like he did in his very first "election". Obama is living proof that cheaters win.

Actually, Obama is living proof that brains and message win. It ain't rocket science...

BTW, can you provide any "credible" proof that Obama cheated to win? From everything I saw and heard - the cheating was taking place on the other side with voter disenfranchisement and outright rigging.

How Republicans Plan To Rig The Next Presidential Election, In Six Pictures | ThinkProgress

Gaming the System: How the Republicans are trying to cheat their way to the White House | People For the American Way

The GOP's Plan to Rig the Electoral College, Explained | Mother Jones

With so much cheating going on by the right with all this voter disenfranchisement and outright rigging one might think that Romney would have won.

 

[auditor0007]

Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

It is a well-known fact that the Tea Party movement dealt the president his famous "shellacking" in the 2010 mid-term election. Less well-known is the actual number of votes this new movement delivered-and the continuing effects these votes could have had in 2012 had the movement not been de-mobilized by the IRS.

In a new research paper, Andreas Madestam (from Stockholm University), Daniel Shoag and David Yanagizawa-Drott (both from the Harvard Kennedy School), and I set out to find out how much impact the Tea Party had on voter turnout in the 2010 election. We compared areas with high levels of Tea Party activity to otherwise similar areas with low levels of Tea Party activity, using data from the Census Bureau, the FEC, news reports, and a variety of other sources. We found that the effect was huge: the movement brought the Republican Party some 3-6 million additional votes in House races. That is an astonishing boost, given that all Republican House candidates combined received fewer than 45 million votes. It demonstrates conclusively how important the party's newly energized base was to its landslide victory in those elections, and how worried Democratic strategists must have been about the conservative movement's momentum.

The Tea Party movement's huge success was not the result of a few days of work by an elected official or two, but involved activists all over the country who spent the year and a half leading up to the midterm elections volunteering, organizing, donating, and rallying. Much of these grassroots activities were centered around 501(c)4s, which according to our research were an important component of the Tea Party movement and its rise.

The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million.

President Obama's margin of victory in some of the key swing states was fairly small: a mere 75,000 votes separated the two contenders in Florida, for example. That is less than 25% of our estimate of what the Tea Party's impact in Florida was in 2010. Looking forward to 2012 in 2010 undermining the Tea Party's efforts there must have seemed quite appealing indeed.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the IRS slowed Tea Party growth before the 2012 election. In March 2010, the IRS decided to single Tea Party groups out for special treatment when applying for tax-exempt status by flagging organizations with names containing "Tea Party," "patriot," or "9/12." For the next two years, the IRS approved the applications of only four such groups, delaying all others while subjecting the applicants to highly intrusive, intimidating requests for information regarding their activities, membership, contacts, Facebook posts, and private thoughts.

As a consequence, the founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party's impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle. As Toby Marie Walker, who runs the Waco Tea Party, which filed for tax-exempt status in 2010 but didn't receive approval until two months ago, recounted recently: "Our donors dried up. It was intimidating and time-consuming." The Richmond Tea Party went through a similar ordeal, and was only granted tax-exempt status in December, right after the election--three years after its initial request. Its chairman explained the consequences: the episode cost the Richmond Tea Party $17,000 in legal fees and swallowed time the all-volunteer network would have devoted to voter turnout, outreach in black and Latino neighborhoods and other events to highlight the constitution and "the concept of liberty."

RealClearMarkets - Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

Republicans lost in 2012 for two reasons. Their message did not resonate well with the majority, and the Obama's ground game put a whoopin on that of Romney's. I did some volunteer work in Ohio for Obama. The night before the election we were told that without a doubt, Obama had more than enough votes to win in Ohio. The only way he could lose is if we didn't get the voters to the polls. By the time we wrapped up for the day, before the polls were even closed, they were telling us that Obama had enough votes, that it was a lock.

 

[JohnL.Burke]

The biggest reason Obama was elected in 2012 was because of a liberal activist press that repeated White House talking points as news.
Obama had inserted himself in the Zimmerman/Trayvon local news story as an attempt to add the topic of race to the presidential race and boost black support.
When government began encroaching on the rights of church and church owned facilities the White House repackaged the debate from a separation of church and state to "a war on women" meme. Most of the press, of course, was more than happy to oblige.
In the third presidential debate, reporter Candy Crowley inserted herself in the debate by wrongly insisting that Obama had originally called the attacks in Benghazi a terrorist action.
The press was less than interested by the questions raised by the Benghazi attack revealing yet another double standard much of the press writhes in.

I don't only blame a partisan and corrupt press though. Romney was not a very good campaigner and did not connect well with a vast amount of people. The good ol' boy network comprising an antiquated GOP establishment needs an overhaul.

 

[daveman]

I see you're still cringe-inducingly stupid.

Obama is President because his predecessor was awful. Memories of President Bush's flops and failures made voters want to keep McCain and Romney from continuing the epic Bush failures.

Just think how bogged down in Syria we'd be right now if the GOP won either election instead.

Sooo...Obama is a shitty President, and it's BUSH'S fault.

Thanks for affirming tap's claim that Obama is unaccountable.

Obama is a great President, having undone as much of the damage wrought by Bush as he can. That's why he was reelected.

He hasn't undone anything -- he's made it worse.

If McCain won, we'd be in Iraq still, bogged down in Syria, and at war with Iran too.

Pssst! In case you didn't notice, Obama is arming Taliban supporters in Syria.

Tell me how that's a GOOD thing.

 

[daveman]

The biggest reason Obama was elected in 2012 was because of a liberal activist press that repeated White House talking points as news.
Obama had inserted himself in the Zimmerman/Trayvon local news story as an attempt to add the topic of race to the presidential race and boost black support.
When government began encroaching on the rights of church and church owned facilities the White House repackaged the debate from a separation of church and state to "a war on women" meme. Most of the press, of course, was more than happy to oblige.
In the third presidential debate, reporter Candy Crowley inserted herself in the debate by wrongly insisting that Obama had originally called the attacks in Benghazi a terrorist action.
The press was less than interested by the questions raised by the Benghazi attack revealing yet another double standard much of the press writhes in.

I don't only blame a partisan and corrupt press though. Romney was not a very good campaigner and did not connect well with a vast amount of people. The good ol' boy network comprising an antiquated GOP establishment needs an overhaul.

The FEC should have fined the hell out of the Obama Campaign for not reporting all the hours of nationwide network and cable TV advertising it got for free from the MSM.

I guess calling it "news" makes it okay.

 

[candycorn]

Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

It is a well-known fact that the Tea Party movement dealt the president his famous "shellacking" in the 2010 mid-term election. Less well-known is the actual number of votes this new movement delivered-and the continuing effects these votes could have had in 2012 had the movement not been de-mobilized by the IRS.

In a new research paper, Andreas Madestam (from Stockholm University), Daniel Shoag and David Yanagizawa-Drott (both from the Harvard Kennedy School), and I set out to find out how much impact the Tea Party had on voter turnout in the 2010 election. We compared areas with high levels of Tea Party activity to otherwise similar areas with low levels of Tea Party activity, using data from the Census Bureau, the FEC, news reports, and a variety of other sources. We found that the effect was huge: the movement brought the Republican Party some 3-6 million additional votes in House races. That is an astonishing boost, given that all Republican House candidates combined received fewer than 45 million votes. It demonstrates conclusively how important the party's newly energized base was to its landslide victory in those elections, and how worried Democratic strategists must have been about the conservative movement's momentum.

The Tea Party movement's huge success was not the result of a few days of work by an elected official or two, but involved activists all over the country who spent the year and a half leading up to the midterm elections volunteering, organizing, donating, and rallying. Much of these grassroots activities were centered around 501(c)4s, which according to our research were an important component of the Tea Party movement and its rise.

The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million.

President Obama's margin of victory in some of the key swing states was fairly small: a mere 75,000 votes separated the two contenders in Florida, for example. That is less than 25% of our estimate of what the Tea Party's impact in Florida was in 2010. Looking forward to 2012 in 2010 undermining the Tea Party's efforts there must have seemed quite appealing indeed.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the IRS slowed Tea Party growth before the 2012 election. In March 2010, the IRS decided to single Tea Party groups out for special treatment when applying for tax-exempt status by flagging organizations with names containing "Tea Party," "patriot," or "9/12." For the next two years, the IRS approved the applications of only four such groups, delaying all others while subjecting the applicants to highly intrusive, intimidating requests for information regarding their activities, membership, contacts, Facebook posts, and private thoughts.

As a consequence, the founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party's impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle. As Toby Marie Walker, who runs the Waco Tea Party, which filed for tax-exempt status in 2010 but didn't receive approval until two months ago, recounted recently: "Our donors dried up. It was intimidating and time-consuming." The Richmond Tea Party went through a similar ordeal, and was only granted tax-exempt status in December, right after the election--three years after its initial request. Its chairman explained the consequences: the episode cost the Richmond Tea Party $17,000 in legal fees and swallowed time the all-volunteer network would have devoted to voter turnout, outreach in black and Latino neighborhoods and other events to highlight the constitution and "the concept of liberty."

RealClearMarkets - Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

Republicans lost in 2012 for two reasons. Their message did not resonate well with the majority, and the Obama's ground game put a whoopin on that of Romney's. I did some volunteer work in Ohio for Obama. The night before the election we were told that without a doubt, Obama had more than enough votes to win in Ohio. The only way he could lose is if we didn't get the voters to the polls. By the time we wrapped up for the day, before the polls were even closed, they were telling us that Obama had enough votes, that it was a lock.

The so-called "party of personal responsibility" spends a lot of time blaming everyone except themselves, do they not?

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

It is a well-known fact that the Tea Party movement dealt the president his famous "shellacking" in the 2010 mid-term election. Less well-known is the actual number of votes this new movement delivered-and the continuing effects these votes could have had in 2012 had the movement not been de-mobilized by the IRS.

In a new research paper, Andreas Madestam (from Stockholm University), Daniel Shoag and David Yanagizawa-Drott (both from the Harvard Kennedy School), and I set out to find out how much impact the Tea Party had on voter turnout in the 2010 election. We compared areas with high levels of Tea Party activity to otherwise similar areas with low levels of Tea Party activity, using data from the Census Bureau, the FEC, news reports, and a variety of other sources. We found that the effect was huge: the movement brought the Republican Party some 3-6 million additional votes in House races. That is an astonishing boost, given that all Republican House candidates combined received fewer than 45 million votes. It demonstrates conclusively how important the party's newly energized base was to its landslide victory in those elections, and how worried Democratic strategists must have been about the conservative movement's momentum.

The Tea Party movement's huge success was not the result of a few days of work by an elected official or two, but involved activists all over the country who spent the year and a half leading up to the midterm elections volunteering, organizing, donating, and rallying. Much of these grassroots activities were centered around 501(c)4s, which according to our research were an important component of the Tea Party movement and its rise.

The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million.

President Obama's margin of victory in some of the key swing states was fairly small: a mere 75,000 votes separated the two contenders in Florida, for example. That is less than 25% of our estimate of what the Tea Party's impact in Florida was in 2010. Looking forward to 2012 in 2010 undermining the Tea Party's efforts there must have seemed quite appealing indeed.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the IRS slowed Tea Party growth before the 2012 election. In March 2010, the IRS decided to single Tea Party groups out for special treatment when applying for tax-exempt status by flagging organizations with names containing "Tea Party," "patriot," or "9/12." For the next two years, the IRS approved the applications of only four such groups, delaying all others while subjecting the applicants to highly intrusive, intimidating requests for information regarding their activities, membership, contacts, Facebook posts, and private thoughts.

As a consequence, the founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party's impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle. As Toby Marie Walker, who runs the Waco Tea Party, which filed for tax-exempt status in 2010 but didn't receive approval until two months ago, recounted recently: "Our donors dried up. It was intimidating and time-consuming." The Richmond Tea Party went through a similar ordeal, and was only granted tax-exempt status in December, right after the election--three years after its initial request. Its chairman explained the consequences: the episode cost the Richmond Tea Party $17,000 in legal fees and swallowed time the all-volunteer network would have devoted to voter turnout, outreach in black and Latino neighborhoods and other events to highlight the constitution and "the concept of liberty."

RealClearMarkets - Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

Republicans lost in 2012 for two reasons. Their message did not resonate well with the majority, and the Obama's ground game put a whoopin on that of Romney's. I did some volunteer work in Ohio for Obama. The night before the election we were told that without a doubt, Obama had more than enough votes to win in Ohio. The only way he could lose is if we didn't get the voters to the polls. By the time we wrapped up for the day, before the polls were even closed, they were telling us that Obama had enough votes, that it was a lock.

The only candidate worse than Obama was Willard V. Jobkiller. Thank you for your great work in 2012.

 

[Geaux4it]

The IRS succeeded in preventing organization, so of course they handed obama his reelection. obama used extensive data mining with information gleaned from the NSA so they certainly helped. If Ed Snowden had arrived on the scene before the election obama would have lost.

I have been a member of Americans for Prosperity for a number of years. We were attacked and called out by Obama on multiple fronts.

Then all of a sudden the IRS starts clamping down?

Never mind, must of been a Coincidence

-Geaux

 

[Amelia]

Romney in 2008 would have saved this nation so much grief.

But we had to elect Obama to know just how bad things could be.



His reelection shows the profound dangers of the media falling down on its job and of giving more power to a bureaucracy which is already too large.

It's sad that the revelations took this long to come out, but they're here now. The genie is out of the bottle.

 

[Lumpy 1]

Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

It is a well-known fact that the Tea Party movement dealt the president his famous "shellacking" in the 2010 mid-term election. Less well-known is the actual number of votes this new movement delivered-and the continuing effects these votes could have had in 2012 had the movement not been de-mobilized by the IRS.

In a new research paper, Andreas Madestam (from Stockholm University), Daniel Shoag and David Yanagizawa-Drott (both from the Harvard Kennedy School), and I set out to find out how much impact the Tea Party had on voter turnout in the 2010 election. We compared areas with high levels of Tea Party activity to otherwise similar areas with low levels of Tea Party activity, using data from the Census Bureau, the FEC, news reports, and a variety of other sources. We found that the effect was huge: the movement brought the Republican Party some 3-6 million additional votes in House races. That is an astonishing boost, given that all Republican House candidates combined received fewer than 45 million votes. It demonstrates conclusively how important the party's newly energized base was to its landslide victory in those elections, and how worried Democratic strategists must have been about the conservative movement's momentum.

The Tea Party movement's huge success was not the result of a few days of work by an elected official or two, but involved activists all over the country who spent the year and a half leading up to the midterm elections volunteering, organizing, donating, and rallying. Much of these grassroots activities were centered around 501(c)4s, which according to our research were an important component of the Tea Party movement and its rise.

The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million.

President Obama's margin of victory in some of the key swing states was fairly small: a mere 75,000 votes separated the two contenders in Florida, for example. That is less than 25% of our estimate of what the Tea Party's impact in Florida was in 2010. Looking forward to 2012 in 2010 undermining the Tea Party's efforts there must have seemed quite appealing indeed.

Unfortunately for Republicans, the IRS slowed Tea Party growth before the 2012 election. In March 2010, the IRS decided to single Tea Party groups out for special treatment when applying for tax-exempt status by flagging organizations with names containing "Tea Party," "patriot," or "9/12." For the next two years, the IRS approved the applications of only four such groups, delaying all others while subjecting the applicants to highly intrusive, intimidating requests for information regarding their activities, membership, contacts, Facebook posts, and private thoughts.

As a consequence, the founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party's impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle. As Toby Marie Walker, who runs the Waco Tea Party, which filed for tax-exempt status in 2010 but didn't receive approval until two months ago, recounted recently: "Our donors dried up. It was intimidating and time-consuming." The Richmond Tea Party went through a similar ordeal, and was only granted tax-exempt status in December, right after the election--three years after its initial request. Its chairman explained the consequences: the episode cost the Richmond Tea Party $17,000 in legal fees and swallowed time the all-volunteer network would have devoted to voter turnout, outreach in black and Latino neighborhoods and other events to highlight the constitution and "the concept of liberty."

RealClearMarkets - Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game

Republicans lost in 2012 for two reasons. Their message did not resonate well with the majority, and the Obama's ground game put a whoopin on that of Romney's. I did some volunteer work in Ohio for Obama. The night before the election we were told that without a doubt, Obama had more than enough votes to win in Ohio. The only way he could lose is if we didn't get the voters to the polls. By the time we wrapped up for the day, before the polls were even closed, they were telling us that Obama had enough votes, that it was a lock.

The so-called "party of personal responsibility" spends a lot of time blaming everyone except themselves, do they not?

Your pants are on fire..just sayin

 

[candycorn]

So, the wingnut excuses continue. The latest is that the IRS deliberately sabotaged Romney's chances at getting elected. Listen, even IF this were true -- that the IRS deliberately delayed the apps of Tea Party groups applying for 501 (c) status -- how would those groups have won the election for Romney anyway? He lost by double digits among Latino, Black, Asian, and Women voting blocs.

Quit your whining. Obama is your president. Except it and move on. Encourage your elected reps to work WITH the other side to bring about common sense legislation instead of egging them on to obstruct at all costs. This country is in real trouble. Gov't doesn't work anymore. Stop making it worse and try to make it better.

And stop being such sore losers. It's really pathetic.

Moreover...

The only thing the IRS delay caused was a denial of "tax free" status. What the right wing loons would have you believe is that these groups activities were tied to being able to not pay taxes for raising and spending money. They could raise as much as they want and then spend as much as they want like Wal Mart. It's hardly patriotic to go into it with the angle of "We'll only do it if we can avoid paying taxes on what we raise" Nobody kept these people from campaigning, organizing, or doing any other activity.

Besides, the status exists not for political operations right?

Wow - this is a whole new level of ignorance and absurdity by the libtards! If you haven't received your tax exempt status from the IRS you simply cannot begin your fund raising for campaigning because you'll have no idea if you'll receive your tax exempt status.

Allow me to dumb it down for you candy-ass, since you are - well - dumb. A Tea Party organization forges ahead not waiting on their tax exempt status. They raise $12 million, and use it for resources (buildings, servers & websites, flyers, and campaign contributions). All $12 million is spent ethically - none is kept, embezzled, etc. Then, 8 months after the election, Uncle Sam shows up and says, "sorry, we have denied your tax exempt status - now where is our cut of the $12 million?"

Ah... where does a person then come up with several million dollars at that point? Can you say prison time....?

Yes folks, candy-ass really is this stupid. And now you know why he gets his ass handed to him in every debate and why he then throws a hissy.

332-206

So according to you, their "patriotism" extends only to the point to where they have no skin in the game.

Again,

Nobody was prevented from organizing, campaigning, activism, etc...

Those are the facts and they are not in dispute from any learned opposition.

 

[candycorn]

Romney in 2008 would have saved this nation so much grief.

But we had to elect Obama to know just how bad things could be.



His reelection shows the profound dangers of the media falling down on its job and of giving more power to a bureaucracy which is already too large.

It's sad that the revelations took this long to come out, but they're here now. The genie is out of the bottle.

Yeah, if he could only get past his major opponent; Mitt Romney.

 

[Dugdale_Jukes]

I love it when the Party of "Personal Responsibility" is still coming up with lame excuses a year later.

You guys lost. Accept it, learn from it, move the fuck on.

Look what you're dealing with.

People that re elected a halfwit inheritor whose lies are directly responsible for killing thousands of Americans and maiming tens of thousands of Americans. People demonstrating less understanding of the effects of ReagaNUTics than monkeys demonstrate on Shakespeare.

These are not the sharpest tacks in the box.

 

[Amelia]

Romney in 2008 would have saved this nation so much grief.

But we had to elect Obama to know just how bad things could be.



His reelection shows the profound dangers of the media falling down on its job and of giving more power to a bureaucracy which is already too large.

It's sad that the revelations took this long to come out, but they're here now. The genie is out of the bottle.

Yeah, if he could only get past his major opponent; Mitt Romney.

Laugh at Romney all you want. You still have to deal with Obama.

Obama is teaching the nation the dangers of liberalism like no conservative ever could. It's an "only Nixon could go to China" moment. Whether assuming the best possible motives for Obama, the worst, or something in between, he has shown that we shouldn't trust the kind of government he represents.