Mitt has to win the most concentrated white vote in history.

[cthulu2016]

On MSNBC last night they were breaking down the fact that in order to win, Romney has to get the highest percentage of the white vote any presidential candidate has ever gotten, with the exception of 1972 and 1984.

They (Rachel or Lawrence... I forget) were struggling with how to express that. The thing is that in 1972 and 1984 the Republican won epic landslides... 15%+ margin type elections. So their percentage of the white vote was correspondingly high. But Reagan and Nixon got a lot more latino votes than Mitt will, and even more black votes than Mitt will. (It ain't hard to beat 0%)

What they were trying to express was what % of the white vote Mitt needs to win a fairly close election in 2012. And it is a huge margin required.

So that is the equation the Romney campaign faces. To win they must have the most concentrated white electorate in presidential campaign history. I think Mitt's voters will be over 90% white. It might get to something unprecedented like 94%. (That is not that 94% of white people would vote for Mitt, but that 94% of Mitt's voters would be white.)

That is just the numbers they face. Arithmetic. And their tactics will follow upon that numerical fact.

The only factor restraining them is potential backlash. They don't know how far they can go without alienating more suburban whites than they can gain. But if their polling is bad in October they will test those limits.

Mitt is a problem-solver, as they keep telling us. He will do whatever is required to maximize his chance of gaining his objective... whatever the numbers dictate. Same as breaking apart a company.

[Gold Metal Flake]

1. The voting machine people and the Republickers that work with them will take care of it.

The problem of the privatized electronic vote still exists.

[Fumesucker]

2. It's getting to the point I have less and less in common with people that look like me..

Doesn't help that I'm an atheist living in the Bible Belt either.

Practically every conversation I have in real life nowadays ends up with me at least figuratively shaking my head in a WTF moment.

[cthulu2016]

4. As a middle-aged white male I am amazed the stuff people assume it is okay to say to me

Bitching about Obama is viewed as an uncontroversial ice-breaker.

And I live in the very bluest part of a state Obama is currently leading in!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

3. 61% of the "white" vote...

And when you factor in the number of white women who aren't voting for him (the whole "rape is not as bad as one might think" thingy), his take of the white male vote must have to be somewhere approaching 70%. Pull out the gay white male voters, and you're now definitely at 70%, if not in the lower 70's.

I don't see how he does it.

[uponit7771]

5. by suppressing 10 - 15% of the black, poor, single mother, Latino, sane people vote

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. Well, there's that...

Which explains everything you need to know about "Ballot Security" laws being passed in states all over the country.

This is the last, desperate gasp of white men trying to maintain their grip on power.

[gkhouston]

6. "if their polling is bad in October they will test those limits"

I thought they were already testing those limits. Dog knows they passed my personal limits a long time ago. WTF is next?

[NightWatcher]

7. he has to win ALL THE WHITE MALES

Good thing for us, there are more of everybody else, plus a few of us white guys would never vote for him in a million years