Earlier this week, we told you about Paul Ryan’s bitter first interview since losing his bid for vice president last week. In it, Ryan, now just a congressman from Wisconsin, blamed the “urban” vote for keeping him and Mitt Romney from running the country.

“The surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race,” Ryan told WISC-TV.

Now, Romney appears to be doubling down on his former running mate’s comments. In a phone call with defeated Republican donors on Wednesday, Romney explained away his loss by positing that Obama had attained victory by promising gifts to Blacks, Latinos and young people.

Reports James Rainey at the LA Times:

Obama, Romney argued, had been “very generous” to blacks, Hispanics and young voters. He cited as motivating factors to young voters the administration’s plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and the extension of health coverage for students on their parents’ insurance plans well into their 20s. Free contraception coverage under Obama’s healthcare plan, he added, gave an extra incentive to college-age women to back the president.

Romney argued that Obama’s healthcare plan’s promise of coverage “in perpetuity” was “highly motivational” to those voters making $25,000 to $35,000 who might not have been covered, as well as to African American and Hispanic voters.

Romney then went on with his blame game, saying that Obama had “focused on giving targeted groups a big gift — so he made a big effort on small things.” In other words, Obama promised to give poor minorities welfare, and that’s how he won.

What Romney’s argument fails to mention, of course, is that Obama won with several groups outside Blacks and Latinos. The president got 56 percent of the mom vote, for instance, and 73 percent of the Asian vote.

Sadly, despite the fact that it’s obvious it wasn’t just Blacks and Latinos swarming the polls to put Obama over the top, it appears as if that’s going to become the main Republican talking point: It wasn’t Romney’s failed campaign that did them in, it was the minorities.

Some conservatives, even Romney, seem to truly believe that Blacks and Latinos who aren’t wealthy suffer because they don’t try hard enough, and don’t take personal responsibility over their failures. Before anyone from the GOP makes those kinds of accusations again, I’d ask them to look at their own leadership.

These views do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.

BET Politics - Your source for the latest news, photos and videos illuminating key issues and personalities in African-American political life, plus commentary from some of our liveliest voices.  Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.  

(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)