This won't be a long diary, but I just wanted to congratulate Pres. Obama's incredible campaign team for their outstanding expertise, skill, dedication, and hard work throughout this campaign. Though Pres. Obama won decisively, it was never a given in this economic climate, and this campaign did everything humanly possible to win this election.
I can't possibly list all the awesome things the campaign did, but just a few highlights past the fold...
* The Obama campaign's decision to go after Romney's Bain record earlier this year was, I believe, the single most critical decision this campaign made. This decision was not straightforward and some well-meaning Democrats disagreed with making an issue of Bain at the time, but the campaign stood firm on this. Ultimately, the decision to keep up a relentless focus on Bain kept Romney on the defensive through the rest of the campaign. They made it hard for Romney to tout his "business experience," which supposedly had been his biggest strength vis-a-vis the economy.
* Every single ad by the Obama campaign was extremely sharp and effective. The Obama campaign short film from this spring called "The Road We've Traveled" perfectly framed the issues right out of the gate. It highlighted all of Pres. Obama's accomplishments, embraced Obamacare, and made strong economic arguments for Pres. Obama. Ever since then, The campaign just continued to hammer home those points over and over and over. Their ads featuring the many Americans describing how Obamacare helped them and their families were exceptionally moving, and put faces on the healthcare law that the GOP sought to demonize.
Special kudos to PrioritiesUSA for their courageous, well-researched ads revealing the truth of Romney's Bain record. I don't believe we have ever had on our side as effective a PAC group as PrioritiesUSA. The PrioritiesUSA ads featured many American workers telling personal stories of how their lives and communities had been devastated by Romney and Bain. These ads were brutal, factually unimpeachable, and they almost singlehandedly beat back any Romney argument that he could do better on the economy. Nothing could have laid out the stark choice in this election as clearly as those PrioritiesUSA ads did.
* The Obama campaign's rapid response was lightning fast and brutal. As soon as Romney misstepped or made a gaffe, the campaign was on it. As soon as Romney tried to mount a line of attack, the Obama campaign shut it down.
* The Obama camp's organization of the DNC convention was (I'm running out of superlative adjectives here, LOL) spectacular. That was hands down the best convention I have ever witnessed, all the more so if you contrast it with the utter travesty of the RNC/Eastwood convention. The DNC convention gave Pres. Obama and the Democratic Party a significant, lasting bump in the polls, which served as a critical cushion for the election endgame.
* The Obama campaign organized a historic GOTV effort. I can't say anything about the campaign's GOTV organization that hasn't already been said by many Kossacks here. They quietly and steadily built up the best ground game this country has ever seen.
Bottom line, the Obama campaign was extraordinary!!