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Reporting from the weekend summit, The New Republic's Alec MacGillis wrote about the traces of 2012 introspection that were on display from conservatives. He listed ten campaign examples that Republicans said were mistakes.

Here are last five:

6. Maybe empirical measures matter after all.

7. Living without health insurance is a bummer, and saying you're going to repeal Obamacare doesn't do much for voters in that situation.

8. "You didn't build that" was a poorly-chosen fixation.

9. The Obama administration's move to require contraception coverage in most insurance plans was perhaps not a suicidal overreach after all.

10. The voter-fraud bogeyman was a distraction.

Notice the connection? Fox News was central in pushing all those distractions; diversion that Republicans now say hurt the party's election chances.  

Empirical measures? Fox News didn't need any! The polls that showed Romney trailing were skewed, Obama's team was in a state of "panic," and Republicans were preparing for a "landslide" victory on Election Night.

Health care reform? It was "unconstitutional"! And if Obama's plan didn't get overturned it would mean "the end of America." Meanwhile, the White House contraception initiative was akin to something imported from "Red China."

And "you didn't build that"? Fox succeeded in creating a campaign uproar over a single sentence from an Obama July 13 campaign appearance, and by ripping that one sentence out of context to make it appear the president had dismissed business owners. The maneuver was called out by a string of fact-checkers ("out of context," "taken wildly out of context," and "ignores the larger context of the president's meaning"), but the channel persisted.

In just two days time last summer Fox devoted 42 segments (!!) to "build that," a talk marathon that totaled more than two hours of airtime.

Karl Rove's anti-Obama super PAC, the Romney campaign, and the entire Republican National Convention soon all joined Fox in  misleading viewers and voters about what Obama said. In other words, the entire conservative/Republican movement in America got behind Fox's "build that" lead and used up untold time and energy hyping it.

Today though, a Republican senator from Texas concedes the whole thing was a waste of time; a squandered fixation. Ted Cruz told MacGillis "build that" didn't resonate with voters because most people don't own their own businesses, they work for people who do.

Cruz's assessment shouldn't have come as a surprise. Despite Fox's obsession, an NBC/WSJ poll in October found that only 32 percent of respondents said the Obama "build that" quote made them feel more negative towards the president.

Even in the wake of Obama's easy re-election win, Fox's grip on the Republican Party appears sturdy. But as party leaders plot the future, will there be room for Fox's failed approach?

Fox News Channel, National Review
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