The overall message of the election is that Romney lost because he is so thoroughly out of touch with Youpeople (TM?) in this country.
But I'll have to admit that I was worried that Romney had a chance. A lousy candidate winnowed out of group of freaks (Ok, Hunstman was not a freak, and I've said to many I was so glad the Republicans tossed him in the garbage, because he would have some credentials to run against Obama as he served as Obama's ambassador to China)
And all that money, the not so secret secret. That held the possibility it could clog the cognitive arteries of the populace.
And the first debate. That truly did have a lot of Obama supporters riled, myself included, not because I thought Obama's performance was so terrible, but I had a sense of how it would be spinned. I'm old enough to have known Muskie's tears, McGovern's 1000% backing of Eagleton, "America Held Hostage", Dukakis with the helmet, Gore's debate sighs, Kerry's "for it before I was against it."
But by being sensitive to that perception that "this is how politics are played", I was also buying into it.
It was excruciating to have to listen to people buying into Romney's businessman/job creator bullshit. It was tempting to despair of a nation with a short-attention span, living on cliches like potato chips.
But somehow that country, in which I was losing faith, came through.
Because someone with a history in community-organizing has more sense on how to achieve political power than someone who relies on high-paid experts.
Those wonderful Americans who gave Obama second term were not caricatures. They were courted by the right wing to the hilt, and they chose common sense. "On the ground" resonates.
Oh, and btw, who could think that the University of Chicago, one of the top educational institutions in this country would hire a lecturer in Constitutional Law on an affirmative action basis? GMAFB.