Election 2012 Results: Romney Says Obama Won Because of "Gifts" to African-Americans, Latinos and Young People

In a speech to campaign donors, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney blamed his loss in last week's election on "gifts" he said President Obama gave to minorities and other interest groups.

"The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls, specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people," said Romney during a conference call on Wednesday. "In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups."

"What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked," said Romney.

The comments come just days after Romney's former running-mate Paul Ryan blamed the loss on unexpectedly high turnout in "urban areas," though only the Republicans were surprised by the number of female, minority and urban voters who showed up at the polls.

What did Romney say about each voting bloc?

Young People
Romney said young voters like Obama's Affordable Care Act, which provides subsidies for health insurance, and mandates coverage for birth control and other necessary services.

"With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift," said Romney.

"Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people."

African-Americans
"With regards to African American voters, 'Obamacare' was a huge plus - and was highly motivational to African American voters. You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you're now going to get free healthcare - particularly if you don't have it, getting free healthcare worth, what, $10,000 a family, in perpetuity, I mean this is huge," said Romney.

Latinos
"Likewise with Hispanic voters, free healthcare was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group," said Romney.

"On the negative side, of course, they always characterized us as being anti-immigrant, being tough on illegal immigration, and so forth, so that was very effective with that group."

Romney's comments echo his infamous "47 percent" remarks, in which he painted nearly half of voters as lazy.

It's also similar to comments made by some Republican pundits after the election. "There are 50 percent of the voting public who want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama," said Bill O'Reilly last week.

Whatever the cause for Obama's victory, sour grapes won't help the Republicans win over any voters they lost.