Grover Norquist: Obama Won Because He Called Romney A 'Poopy Head'

Norquist: Obama Won Because He Called Romney A 'Poopy Head'

Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans For Tax Reform, has a new theory about why President Barack Obama won -- he portrayed Mitt Romney as a "poopy head."

"The president was committed; elected on the basis that he was not Romney and Romney was a poopy head and you should vote against Romney and he won by two points," Norquist said on CBS' "This Morning" Monday. "But he didn't make the case that we should have higher taxes and higher spending, he kind of sounded like the opposite."

Host Norah O'Donnell pushed back. "Well, I'm not sure that's what the president called Mitt Romney, Grover," she said. "That's not the debate that was had ... he said very clearly throughout the debate that the wealthiest Americans should pay more and he won eight of the nine battleground states and Republicans failed to reclaim the White House or the Senate."

"What about the exit polls that show a broad support for raising taxes on the wealthiest americans. Are you wrong?" she asked.

Norquist pointed to negative advertising against former GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

"Well, again, you saw those ads that suggested Romney gave people cancer in Ohio for months and months unanswered. You can trash an individual and get people to vote against him," he said. He then touted Republican governors who won elections pledging to phase out state income taxes. O'Donnell replied that those were state issues.

The ad Norquist is referring to -- a spot by pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, tying a Bain Capital-controlled steel mill's closure to a lack of health care for an employee's wife, who eventually died from cancer -- aired mistakenly, according to Priorities USA. The ad was sharply criticized for being inaccurate.

Other Republicans have struggled to explain Obama's win. Karl Rove echoed Norquist recently, saying that the negative ads succeeded in "suppressing the vote."

When asked if any members of Congress who have signed Americans for Tax Reform's pledge not to raise taxes would accept new revenue, Norquist said, "The pledge is to the American People not to me."

"So they don't need my permission to vote," he said. "They made a commitment to the people in their states."

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2012 -- Mitt Romney

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