Mitt Romney

I guess I'm not a part of the diverse voter bloc that delivered for President Barack Obama ("Diverse voter bloc delivers for Obama," Nov. 8). I am a woman but I'm past middle age, Jewish and not swayed by negative campaigning. I voted for Mitt Romney. Mignon Rosenthal, Pikesville

As if Mitt Romney's defeat weren't a cross enough to bear, the kind of campaign he ran could make him uniquely a man on the outside of his party looking in. His chameleon-like shades of Republicanism - he presented himself as "severely conservative" during the GOP primaries to appeal to the party base but then moved toward the center as Moderate Mitt from Massachusetts to woo independents - could make him a pariah in both circles from now on....

Fact: The empathy factor was a big winner for President Barack Obama. Opinion: It proved impossible for a wealthy CEO-type to compete in the "he cares about us" category. Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comment most certainly (further) strengthened this narrative. But it was the Obama campaign's relentless rhetoric against wealth and income disparity that carried the day with enough middle-class voters. Fact: Democratic candidates successfully exploited the gender gap when nobody was looking.

Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without. President Barack Obama's re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming. Pollsters Michael Barone and Dick Morris got it horribly wrong. Both predicted a 300 electoral-vote win for Mitt Romney. It was President Obama who reached that mark. The central message coming out of the election seems to be that we are no longer the America of our Founders, or even the America that existed during World War II, which produced our "Greatest Generation.

Voter turnout in Maryland in 2012's general election dropped by more than 8 percentage points from 2008 but President Obama's vote percentage slipped much less than in  other states, according to the State Board of Elections. Unofficial figures show a turnout of 69.04 percent compared with the spectacular 77.63 percent registered in Obama's first election. But voting appeared to be off roughly equally among both Democrats and Republicans. Obama's support dropped a half point from 2008 -- 61.4 percent compared with the 61.9 percent he garnered against John McCain.

It would be tempting to call the 2012 election the year of the woman - if only for the record number headed for the U.S. Senate and their instrumental role in re-electing President Barack Obama - but it was also the year of the Latino, the African-American and the young. That's the coalition that helped Mr. Obama, and that's the election result that ought to worry Republicans most. Once the GOP gets past some respectable period of mourning that comes from losing a national election to an incumbent president at a time of persistently high unemployment, they are going to have to do some serious soul-searching.

The realities of the 2012 presidential campaign season: 23 million unemployed or underemployed Americans, soaring gas prices, mounting debt, a controversial national health care law about to take effect, unrest overseas, and a fiscal cliff looming. Historical precedent — since FDR, no president has been reelected with unemployment hovering around or above 8 percent — and polling showing most people felt the country was on the wrong track pointed to a "change election cycle" and a resounding Mitt Romney victory.

If four years ago they voted for historic change, on Tuesday, Maryland supporters of President Barack Obama cast their ballots for patience. "I figure that in four years, he couldn't have done everything to right the course after the previous administration," Kimberly Shorter, 39, of Woodlawn said after casting her vote for him. "Of course, there was some disappointment with the fact that he didn't do everything he set out to do, but he's human...

As the Presidential Election comes to a close, there are still two questions I have for Gov. Mitt Romney. First, in the event that you, Governor Romney, win the election, would you as President John F Kennedy did, forego your presidential salary while in office? Second, as President, would you suspend your duties as Bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Robert M. McDonough, Columbia

I applaud Thomas F. Schaller's column on President Obama's modest background ("The virtues of a president with humble origins," Oct. 31). The last thing this country needs is another arrogant son of a rich man who lives on a different planet than the rest of us. In my opinion, the election of Mitt Romney as president would be a tragedy for the nation and lead to perilous times. The two existential threats that face our country are income disparity and climate change, and the Republican Party is on the wrong side of both issues.