I think Romney won the election tonight in his answer to the question: "Is there a single Republican principle you're willing to stand up for tonight?"
His dismissive reply, "Of course I'm not a Republican," was applauded by CNN as the single most effective political tactic in decades, and won what had been a tied race up to that point. Or overcame a slight Obama lead. Or overcame a significant Obama lead. Whatever.
The genius of the Romney tactic was staggering. All political experts agreed this was the total realization of the etch-a-sketch approach to winning the presidency that the Romney campaign had proudly announced so many months ago. And arguably the best use of his "of course I'm not/don't" tactic to disavow previous positions in several minutes.
It was not just the statement itself, but the tone. Romney said "Of course" as if anyone who held a contrary view was imbecilic or duplicitous or both.
All pundits of whatever view toward reality called this one of the best "of course" negations ever attempted by Mitt Romney. The Republican National Committee issued a public statement, "We are so proud of soon-to-be-president-elect Mitt Romney that he had the political wisdom to so totally disavow the Republican party. We look forward to his acceptance speech in which he looks into the camera at America and announces with a smirk 'fooled ya!"