Republicans Can’t Win With Whites Alone

Ron Brownstein:
“This much is undisputed: In 2012, President Obama lost white voters by
a larger margin than any winning presidential candidate in U.S.
history. In his reelection, Obama lost ground from 2008 with almost
every conceivable segment of the white electorate. With several key
groups of whites, he recorded the weakest national performance for any
Democratic nominee since the Republican landslides of the 1980s. … And
yet, behind rousing support from minorities everywhere, and often much
more competitive showings among whites in both Democratic-leaning and
battleground states, Obama not only won reelection but won fairly
comfortably.”

“Few decisions may carry greater consequences for the
Republican Party in 2016 than how it interprets these facts. The key
question facing the GOP is whether Obama’s 2012 performance represents a
structural Democratic decline among whites that could deepen even
further in the years ahead–or a floor from which the next Democratic
nominee is likely to improve.”