Didn't see a resounding victory either. Saw a status-quo election where one side's standard-bearer edged out the other side's standard-bearer ... a race that turned on the timing of random events.

In Washington State, D's mostly swept the statewide offices - but four of four major statewide ballot measures passed, and all of them were anti-govt by nature. Three pro-govt technical measures (referred non-controversially by the legislature) failed, while one arguably anti-govt technical measure (lowering a debt limitation) was ratified.

But honestly, I grew up in a family that talked in variations of his various themes all the time, just not in the unhinged public fashion you hear from the Loud & Corpulant One and his brethren on the airwaves. And as I've gotten older and wiser, I'm finding myself increasingly annoyed at having to be subjected to wingers like Limbaugh and some of my own relatives as they wax poetic about their particularly noxious brand of politics.

That act so smug and superior and are so damned sure of themselves while doing so, and yet it's painfully evident from their own demonstrable lack of basic knowledge about the size, role and function of government that they have absolutely no friggin' clue what they're talking about.

That's why I refused to be shocked, shocked by Mitt Romney's ignorant "47%" comments. Honestly, and I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, this is the way most of these tighty-whitey conservatives have always talked to one another behind closed doors, ever since I can remember.

They've both repeated and heard their own crackpotted socio-economic Ayn Randian bull$Hi+ so often and for so long, it's really no small wonder how they've managed to convince themselves of its veracity. And if that isn't a prime-time example of pathetic, then I don't know what is.

In my opinion, the GOP's perpetual celebration of its own in-house wankerdom has proved to be no small factor in the gradual coalescing and rise of what BTD and others have rightly identified as the "emerging Democratic majority." And if this election proved anything, it's that the Republican pool of political consensus has shrunk to the extent where it can now reasonably be labeled "incestuous."

150 years ago, as the Civil War entered its second year with ever-increasing casualty lists and general carnage, the Republican Party had clearly emerged as the progressive antidote to a Democratic Party which had heretofore represented the conservative status quo,, until it had finally splintered into acrimonious regional factions during the 1860 election over the subject of slavery.

100 years ago, even as the GOP was increasingly being held captive by the country's vested corporate interests, most African Americans still tended to vote Republican because most white racists who oppressed them tended to be Democrats.

80 years ago, the third largest political party was the Communist Party and the Ku Klux Klan had an estimated 20 million members who tended to support the Dixiecrat wing of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were building the political coalitions that would sweep them into Washington the following year and commence the rebranding of the Democratic Party to reflect that generation's emerging consensus.

Suffice to say that both major political parties have evolved accordingly to meet the times as its members saw fit. Nothing remains static in politics, nor should its factions, if they seek to remain at all relevant in the ongoing national conversation.

He is the only president to be reelected to a second term with fewer electoral votes than in his first election

Also:

he may not have as many votes as Governor Romney

based on his screed, i must ask, what "history" is he a "historian" of? given his lack of knowledge, about things that happened only last week, one wonders just how accurate he could possibly be, with anything that happened a month or more ago?

After all, need we point out that most Hispanic voters, like most voters, are women?  (I.e., to use another term, that most voters called "Latinos" are Latinas?)

And I wonder -- I'll have to go see stats -- whether most gay voters are women, too?  

Btw, one of the most intriguing reads of late was on a major source of Tammy Baldwin's funding, which allowed her to actually compete with the incredible amounts poured into the Wisconsin race by the Kochs and their like again, as with all things Wisconsin lately.  That major source of funding for Tammy Baldwin was the gay community nationwide, which gave many millions to her campaign.

And, seriously, Oregon is turning red? Obama won here. All four statewide offices on the ballot were won by Democrats. Democrats won control of both the state senate and the state house.

Additionally, both of our U.S. senators and four of our five House members are Democrats.

Portland voters approved a school bond measure and a special city-wide tax that will funnel money to public schools for art and music and provide some money to local arts organizations.  Multnomah County voters approved the creation of a special tax-levying library district.

Where do they see the red in this state?