Why did Romney underperform so much?

[PoliticalShelter]

I wouldn't say Romney seemed to lack empathy, but whatever.  I think the answer is, for however reckless he was with the overall state of the Democratic Party, Obama was a good Presidential candidate who resonated with a lot of people.  If he hadn't lost a lot of racist former Democrats in 2008 (aka had been a White male), he would have won in an absolute landslide.  NOTE: this is not even close to saying that people who didn't vote for him were racists, as I did not support the guy, but there were certainly a significant number of Democrats who voted for out-of-touch-Massachusetts-liberal John Kerry and refused to vote for Obama, likely because of his race.

This would of easily been cancelled out by much lower black turnout (and possibly lower Latino and Asian turnout).

[PoliticalShelter]

I wouldn't say Romney seemed to lack empathy, but whatever.  I think the answer is, for however reckless he was with the overall state of the Democratic Party, Obama was a good Presidential candidate who resonated with a lot of people.  If he hadn't lost a lot of racist former Democrats in 2008 (aka had been a White male), he would have won in an absolute landslide.  NOTE: this is not even close to saying that people who didn't vote for him were racists, as I did not support the guy, but there were certainly a significant number of Democrats who voted for out-of-touch-Massachusetts-liberal John Kerry and refused to vote for Obama, likely because of his race.

What?

Yeah outside of Arkansa this was obviously not the case in most southern states which moved about couple percentage point away from Obama (and a chunk of that was probably generational replacement).

[PoliticalShelter]

I wouldn't say Romney seemed to lack empathy, but whatever.  I think the answer is, for however reckless he was with the overall state of the Democratic Party, Obama was a good Presidential candidate who resonated with a lot of people.  If he hadn't lost a lot of racist former Democrats in 2008 (aka had been a White male), he would have won in an absolute landslide.  NOTE: this is not even close to saying that people who didn't vote for him were racists, as I did not support the guy, but there were certainly a significant number of Democrats who voted for out-of-touch-Massachusetts-liberal John Kerry and refused to vote for Obama, likely because of his race.

What?

Yeah outside of Arkansa this was obviously not the case in most southern states which moved about couple percentage point away from Obama (and a chunk of that was probably generational replacement).

In an election where the country moved 8 points in the Democrats' direction, Oklahoma moved .15% to McCain, Louisiana moved 4.12% toward McCain, Tennessee moved .80% toward McCain, West Virginia moved 2.26% toward McCain and Arkansas moved an almost astounding 10.09% toward the Republican ticket.

Again, I'd like to hear another hypothesis why a very significant chunk of former Democratic voters would vote for John Kerry but not Barrack Obama.  Both are socially liberal, more "academic" types from highly populated areas who were accused by the Republicans of being out of touch with Middle America and elitist.

Yes and most of these states only moved away from the democrats by a couple of points, which is what I said if you bothered to read what I said. As for the national swing, you only stated people who had voted for John Kerry, so.