Romney die-hards just couldn't understand why he lost. They really weren't expecting it.
At least one campaign worker blamed the loss on the way the candidate exploited the Benghazi tragedy for political gain.
I don't know if that was it, but I do remember his little smile when the news broke, days before his official reaction. My visceral reaction was disgust, and I don't believe I was the only one feeling it.
A review of a book by a Romney campaign worker sums up the view of senior advisor
The statement got major facts wrong, and used a national tragedy, the death of the Libyan ambassador and two other citizens, as a launching point for a tangential political attack. Pointing to a disavowed U.S. embassy statement from Cairo, which condemned an offensive video that had inflamed regional tensions, Romney blamed the Obama administration for “sympathizing with those who waged the attacks” as Americans were being killed in Benghazi. “The Romney campaign’s statement of September 11, 2012 had left the candidate naked, embarrassed, and disarmed,” Schoenfeld writes. He notes that Romney “dressed down his top advisers” on September 12th following the botched statement.
Did he? Did anybody listen? We don't really know. As the review points out
Romney’s singular focus on the economy may have been misguided, but Schoenfeld can’t substantiate the claim that a stronger focus on foreign policy or Benghazi would have won the day. As another senior Romney aide said, after requesting anonymity, “[Of the] million reasons why we lost, this is just not one on my list.” “Obama turned out to be not as unpopular as we thought it was, the economy wasn’t as bad...”
These are the perils of living in an unreality-based community.