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This time last year, the Republicans were expected to seize control of the Senate and pose a real threat to President Barack Obama’s re-election efforts even with a band of misfit candidates. Unfortunately for the Grand Old Party, numerous gaffes and one too many kooks on the ballot soiled those plans. The Republican Party doesn’t seem to know what exactly went wrong with them, but fret not, here’s NewsOne’s breakdown.

RELATED: NewsOne Looks Back On the Most Unbelievable Crimes Of 2012

1. Mitt Romney Says He Likes to Fire People

Before he secured the Republican nomination by essentially outspending and smearing his competition, Mitt Romney openly noted how he “likes being able to fire people” in January. His primary rivals pounced on the comment, and as a result, Romney told the Wall Street Journal that he would “try and be a little more careful in what I say.”

We all see how well that pledge went.

Watch Romney actually being honest here:

2. Adviser Calls Romney ‘The Etch-A-Sketch Candidate’

When your candidate is accused of being an unscrupulous character, it doesn’t make much sense to go on national TV and lend credence to the sentiment. Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom did just that when discussing Romney on CNN, in which he said, “Everything changes. It’s like Etch A Sketch. You can shake it up, and we start all over again.”

Watch Fehrnstrom’s unfortunate comments here:

3. Romney Chooses Paul Ryan as VP

Romney choosing the Wisconsin congressman as his running mate was sold as a “bold” choice that showed the Republican presidential nominee was interested in “big” ideas and a genuine shift toward staunch conservative principles.

Actually, all Paul Ryan’s selection as VP did was scare old people in Florida who were mortified of his plan to gut Social Security and Medicare.

And if you saw Ryan’s performance in the vice presidential debate with Vice President Joe Biden, you learned that the purported “great intellectual” is the dunce to Sarah Palin’s cap.

Watch a snippet of the debate here:

4. Clint Eastwood Makes Bizarre Speech at Republican National Convention

Grumpy old man blabs a bunch of condescending — and in some cases — offensive gibberish about President Obama. And while like-minded individuals in attendance at the RNC chuckled, the rest of the country was left as bewildered as the person talking to the empty chair. What was even worse? Clint’s speech was remembered much more than Mitt Romney’s.

Watch Eastwood’s embarrassing monologue here:

5. Republicans Attempt To Suppress the Black and Latino Vote

Instead of trying to come up with ideas, such as being less racist and anti-immigrant, in an effort to woo minority voters, Republicans spent the last several years – and this one in particular – trying to suppress the Black and Latino vote. To the Republican’s surprise, though, several of their dubious laws were struck down in various courts across the country, ultimately awaking a sleeping giant — yes, when people’s rights are infringed upon, they tend to get motivated. See Ohio, which had a huge surge in the Black vote that handed Obama the state and re-election.

Watch Republicans try to stifle the Black and Latino vote in Ohio:

6. Republicans Use Obscene Amounts of Super PAC Spending To Try and Win Election

Though there remains plenty of reasons to fear the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizen’s United, which unleashed unlimited amounts of spending from corporations in political campaigns, this year’s presidential election proved what matters most is how you spend the money. While Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS unleashed hundred of millions of dollars in spending, none of their efforts backed the same punch as the much smaller Priorities USA. The latter PAC, headed by former White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, was far more successful in shifting the tone — and ultimately winning — the election.

7. Republicans Encourage Donald Trump To Speak

NewsOne’s not entirely sure why Mitt Romney and the rest of his Republican brethren thought it’d be a great idea to allow egomaniac and conspiracy theorist Donald Trump to spew so much of his racist and xenophobic nonsense about Obama throughout the year, but surely they must know now that it’s best to let him use his talent where it belongs: on episodes of “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Watch Trump ask (again) for the President’s “freedom papers”:

8. Republicans Air Out Their Sexism

It began with Rush Limbaugh branding Georgetown University Law Center student Sandra Fluke as a “slut” and “prostitute” following her comments before Congress about mandating insurance coverage for contraceptives, but conservatives made several stupid statements about women and their bodies throughout the year. There was Todd Akin’s assertion that women’s bodies can shut down pregnancies from “legitimate rapes.” Then came Senate candidate Richard Mourdock arguing that God intends any pregnancies from rape. Though Romney tried to duck these loons, he didn’t do himself any favors either, given that his running mate worked on anti-abortion legislation with Akin. Ditto for Romney’s claim in a debate that as governor of Massachusetts he requested “binders full of women” for staffing efforts.

Watch Romney’s ridiculous “binders full of women” comments here:

9. Romney Makes Devastating 47 Percent Comments

Mother Jones helped seal Romney’s fate when uncovering video from a private fund-raiser, in which he told a room full of wealth donors that when it comes to Obama’s supporters:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

Only the President’s lackluster first presidential debate temporarily diluted the full impact of Romney’s thoughts about nearly half of the country. And no matter how often Romney attempted to dump these comments as being “misunderstood,” his perception of the 47 percent of this nation would follow him all the way to Election Day and beyond.

Watch how Romney really feels about the working class here:

10. Republicans Continue To Disappoint with Post-Election Reactions

After President Obama officially won re-election, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) released a statement so salty you would’ve thought it came with a Big Mac and super-sized Coke. Worse was Romney’s statement to contributors over a conference call, where blamed his loss not on his own inept campaign but on “gifts” Obama gave to minority groups.

And despite the electorate overwhelmingly showing they favor higher taxes on the rich, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) continues to defend the rich as if 1 Percent Jesus ordained the mission. Sure, some of the saner Republicans are coming out of hiding to stress the party needs moderation in message, but from the looks of it, it’s going to take them a good while to come to their senses.

SEE ALSO: President Promotes Fiscal Cliff Plan, Visits Virginia Family

Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick