Obama Redux, Warren Beats Brown, Dems Gain in Senate, Under-Performing White Middle-Class Men . . .

By TRB - And let's not forget the enormous pro-Obama Latino vote, the Republican war on women, the crazy Republican who said if a woman is raped it is becauce God wanted it to happen, or another crazy Republican Senator who said women had special biologically built-in defenses against rape, i.e. they could reject the pregnancy-by-rape "naturally." Bush best-boy Karl Rove managed a corporate slush fund that doled out billions in cash to Romney and other Republicans and still they lost. The Republicans ran what many considered the most acrimonious political campaign in American history.

Six-year Presidential candidate Mitt Romney authored an editorial in the New York Times stating that Detroit's car companies should declare bankruptcy. Pres. Obama ignored this advice and used Federal funds to save the automobile companies, save and create thousands of jobs, which are doing well. In a secretly taped speech Romney wrote off 47 percent of the American public, calling them "victims," and "dependents," saying they would never vote for him because they knew the danger he posed to their "entitlements."

Romney said many times in public that he would "end" Planned Parenthood, an organization which many women use to maintain their reproductive health. He promised to choose a pro-life, conservative judge when a slot opens on the Supreme Court because he said he wanted to destroy Roe v Wade. His VP choice, a Rep. from Wisconsin was one of the right wing pols who wrote something called the "Personhood Act."

This law would have made abortion a crime, if a DA wished to read it that way. The Personhood Act gave fetuses "property rights," basically making them fully formed and mature people before they had the ability to live outside of the womb. If a woman chose to abort such a fetus under the Parenthood Act could she be prosecuted for murder using the law's award of fetal "property rights?" Thankfully it did not go into law. Although it was well-known that Romney's running mate Paul Ryan was against abortion in the case on incest, rape and even to save the woman's life. After Romney picked him, Ryan tried to tone those beliefs down and go back to the "middle." Obviously he lacked credibility. A bad VP pick, in the end he couldn't even win his home state of Wisconsin for Romney.

Mysteriously the Rebublicans seemed out to "get" women. Well, they did. They now have more women (Democrats) in the Senate and House than ever before - women like Elizabeth Warren, who beat pretty-boy Scott Brown soundly. Warren, a tenured professor at Harvard University, has her eyes on America's corrupt financial institutions. She has plans to regulated them like they have never been regulated. And she is young enough to some day run for President.

Latinos, 71 percent of them, voted for Obama. Over 90 percent of Black Americans voted for Obama. Over 70 percent of Asian Americans voted for Obama. The country is split racially and politically. The White vote came out for Romney, 53 percent. It would have been larger for Romney, but White working class people in the "Rust Belt" states (Ohio, Michigan, Ohio), voted for Obama - mostly because he saved their auto industry jobs.

The President introduced his Dream Act several months back, a program designed to make it easier for Hispanic youths whose parents brought them into this country, to stay here and eventually become citizens. It was not enough. More is needed to allow immigrants a simpler road to citizenship. But Romney was even against the Dream Act. He spoke about a proposed program that would allow "illegal aliens" to leave the nation "voluntarily."

Sealing their fate even more tightly, Republican election officials sought to supress the vote, making it more difficult to vote in many states, requiring I.D., etc. To vote yesterday, could take hours, especially in "swing states" such as Florida and Ohio. The Republican effort to supress the vote, produced the opposite outcome. People waited in lines for four to six hours, but they were only more determined to vote. Many were infuriated. All of the "swing states," where voter supression was tried - swung to Obama.

You can look at the Latino vote, the demographic change in the nation, largely ignored by Republicans, the polls showing that the majority of Americans believe the wealthy have more political power and are not taxed enough, polls showing that Americans - a majority of them - have positive feelings about the nation's economic future. You can look at all the money and all the disgusting advertising. Or you can look at Romney himself. What do you see?

I see a man who once successfully ran for governor of Mass. His formula was simple, but it worked. First he played to the right wing - his base. And once he had them in his corner, he began to tack back to the center ever so slowly. He got back in time though. And he won the office.

This time, during the Presidential primary, Romney ran as far to the right as he could. And he came out on top, winning the nomination. Then he began his way back to the center. But it was blocked for him, blocked by Obama, who called him on his "flip-flops" and "Etch a Sketch" moments. Romney was left out there on the Right. He could not get back to the center.

The race was not as close as it looked last night. Consider this: Romney lost in Massachusetts, which he calls his "home." He lost in New Hampshire, which he calls his "home." He lost in Michigan, which he calls his "home."

Romney lost both the popular and electoral vote.

He lost.