Rush Limbaugh is Wrong on why Romney lost the Presidential election

Rush Limbaugh has been claiming on his radio show that the reason why Mitt Romney lost the Presidential election is because "four million Republicans stayed home" during that election.
Here are a few clips about this from his radio show: 

Did you look at how many Republicans didn't show up to vote for Mitt Romney in 2008?  Do you realize that if the Republican Party base had turned out, Obama would have been defeated?  Why didn't it happen?  When does fighting for freedom backfire?  Explain that to me.  Because that's what this is. I guess some of these establishment types in Washington, regardless of party, I don't think they really understand.  I think there is such a divide in this country, it is so wide, that some people in politics, it's their business to understand these things.  They don't even know what really is going on.  I just heard Michael Barone say, "Well, this is nothing but theater.  All Ted Cruz has done is engage in something that's impossible." 

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/09/25/ted_cruz_is_fighting_for_freedom
 



And that stems from the fact that Obama won the election.  To people like Parsons and these guys, well, that's the will of the people speaking.  I mean, the vast majority of people spoke and they elected Obama.  The people on our side don't think that's what happened.  Yeah, Obama won the election, but we don't think it was a madcap endorsement of Obama.  There were four million Republicans that didn't show up because they weren't happy with the nominee.  There were four million Republicans that didn't show up because they're dissatisfied with the Republican Party and they simply wanted to let it be known.  

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/14/remember_when_bush_won_and_liberals_said_he_should_get_everything_he_want
 



"You can't win if you don't do that!"  I told you, I talked to an elected Republican last week who may run for president.  He said to me, "Rush, Republicans can't win simply by turning out their base anymore.  Democrats can; we can't."  I said, "Now, wait a minute.  There were four million Republicans that did not vote in 2012 for Mitt Romney.  They sat home.  If they'd have shown up, that's the base. We would have won. 

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/03/14/the_gop_establishment_wants_to_run_on_fixing_not_repealing_obamacare




I know.  My answer to that is, "If you don't want to run, just say so, rather than disqualify yourself."  I mean, yeah, I think Tea Party... We know that four million Republicans in 2012 stayed home. Stop and think.  I still can't believe it.  I mean, I believe it, but in 2012, four million Republicans stayed home for the very reason she's talking about here.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/04/08/bush_clinton_is_really_the_best_we_can_d
 




The Truth of the matter is that Romney didn't lose because "four million Republicans stayed home" during the 2012 Presidential election.

Here are the certified official election results from the Federal Election Commission from the last three Presidential elections:

2012 - Mitt Romney (Republican) ---- 60,933,500 - 47.20%

2012 - Barack Obama (Democrat) --- 65,915,796 - 51.06%

http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2012/federalelections2012.pdf

  
 
2008 - John McCain (Republican) ---- 59,948,323 - 45.65% 
 
2008 - Barack Obama (Democrat) --- 69,498,516 - 52.93%
 
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2008/federalelections2008.pdf

 

2004 - George W. Bush (Republican) --- 62,040,610 - 50.73%

2004 - John F. Kerry (Democrat) ------ 59,028,444 - 48.27%

http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2004/federalelections2004.pdf


 

Romney in 2012 got nearly a million more votes nationally than what McCain got in 2008.  Bush 43 in 2004 got about 1.1 million more votes nationally than Romney got in 2012.  However, that is not close to getting four million more votes than what Romney got nationally.    Plus, Romney got more votes than what both McCain and Bush 43 got in the battleground States.   The Battleground States were Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin during the last election.                    
    

2012 Battleground States:

Obama --- 20,419,683 - 51.0%
Romney -- 19,035,767 - 47.5%
Others ---- 595,687 --- 01.5%
 
  

2012 Battleground States in 2008:

Obama --- 20,887,364 - 52.7%
McCain -- 18,255,979 - 46.0%
Others ----  514,261 --- 01.3%
 


2012 Battleground States in 2004:

Bush ---- 18,724,216
Kerry --- 17,659,246
Others ---- 293,177
   
  
  
  
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004#Votes_by_state

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008#Votes_by_state

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012#Votes_by_states

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swing_states_2012.svg