Romney comes up short

With his face in his hands, and tears in his eyes, 16-year-old Romney supporter Adam Czer began to process what he had just heard.Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney failed to accumulate the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. “How can the American people be so stupid?” Czer lamented. Romney had a promising start as the election results were coming in from across the country. The GOP candidate won Kentucky, West Virginia and even Indiana, a state that swung Obama’s way in 2008. As time went on, more and more states turned the color blue. Obama was able to pick up states like Vermont and Maryland by huge margins. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Romney losing his home state of Massachusetts. Even with the loss, Romney does not regret how his campaign was run. “Paul [Ryan] and I left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign, “ Romney said during his concession speech. Romney needed to win Florida and at least one other battleground state in order to have any chance of edging out Obama. In the end, Romney did not win any of those states. Jennifer Richardson, a Santa Monica local, voted for Romney. Although she knew that winning California was a long shot, Richardson believed the race would be hotly contested. “It’s going to go down to the wire,” she said as she left her polling place. And go down to the wire it did. Ohio was projected to go Obama’s way, essentially handing him the race. Shortly after, however, new projections showed the two candidates were still tied in the crucial swing state. In the end, however, Ohio didn’t matter. Obama was able to gain electoral votes in battleground states such as Colorado and Nevada, clinching Romney’s concession speech was full of “thank yous” to his family, his campaign supporters and was gracious to the newly re-elected President Obama. “This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the President will be successful in guiding our nation,” Romney said. According to sources, Romney called Obama to congratulate him on his victory. Victoria Davis, vice president of Malibu/Bel-Air Women’s Republican Federation, stated the next four years would yield “devastation and destruction,” and that she was frightened for the country. “You will see a rise of taxation that you can’t even imagine; you will see poverty and violence,” Davis said. There is certainly disappointment being felt by local Republicans. But time will tell whether this ominous prediction will come to pass.