60 Shades of Gray: Why Obama Won and Romney Lost

It's all over for a moment. The 24 hour news cycle can take a breath for one second before continuing its relentless, hypnotic spiral. Like many news babies, I wish I could get weaned. We'll see. But for now, what happened and why? It's not black and white.

The people have spoken, but only after waiting in long lines. Question number one is this: Why were so many willing to stand in long lines?

        

The Republican Party misread this badly. In fact, they constantly added fuel to the fire. The most obvious misstep was Governor Romney's 47% comment, followed by his defense of it, then the obligatory walk back. However, that’s only one of a series of indignities the poorer Democratic constituency revolted against. As Bill Clinton and Nate Silver kept reminding us, math matters. You can’t just make things up. Offended, we were willing to bite our tongues and stand in line.

Extremism about women reached the tipping point. Discussions about rape are, to put it mildly, distasteful. Forcible rape, legitimate rape, redefining rape – these topics do not play well, excuse me, with reasonable, 21^st century people.  If someone rapes my sister, she should be free to decide what to do – not some older man who thinks he knows what God has in mind for my victimized sister.

Then there are the comments. The GOP claims to have common sense on their side, yet they rarely respond to the last half dozen years during which they heard these statements broadcast daily: He is a Muslim, a terrorist, a Socialist, a Communist. He was palling around with terrorists and gave a terrorist fist bump. How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for you? Where is his birth certificate? Where are his college transcripts? He used Affirmative Action to get in school. He is the Food Stamp President. He wants to give people on welfare a check. ACORN, Benghazi, Solyndra. Each time we heard these, up jumped the dander. We Obama voters want to give a big shout out to all of those who said these things. Thanks for the impetus. The yard signs also inspired us, especially the Fire Obama signs from FreedomWorks.

Last on the list of voting motivators were the pundits. FOX News pundits – not the competent news division, of course, greatly inspired the Democrat masses. Its ever-present fabrications did not go unnoticed or unrewarded.  Karl Rove – embarrassing laughingstock. Donald Trump – washed-up buffoon. Dick Morris – silly joker. Ann Coulter – gruesome witch. Michelle Malkin -- reliably bitter.  Sean Hannity – snake oil salesman. All of them, liars to their core.

Our campaign, the Romney folks told us, will not be dictated by fact checkers. This was one of the only truths they told.