The Daily's Live Election Blog
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“I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory… I pray that the President will be successful.” — Mitt Romney’s concession speech -
Andrew Sullivan: Obama Created a New & Durable Coalition
“This president has never been a radical; he has always been a moderate; he has been immensely skilled at foreign policy, ended one war and won another, killed Osama bin Laden and saved the American auto industry, deflected a Second Great Depression and initated universal access to healthcare. He has presided over a civil rights revolution and the beginning of the end of prohibition of marijuana. He has created the new and durable coalition that was once Karl Rove’s dream.
Americans saw this. They were not fooled. And they made the right call, as they usually do.”
—Andrew Sullivan, political commentator, The Daily Beast
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Eli Lehrer: Romney Never Said How He Would Govern
“Romney lost because he never gave a clear answer as to how he would govern. And this — governance itself — can explain a lot about what the Republican party needs to do if it wants to reclaim the White House in 2016.
For all of his virtues and vices, I, as a Romney supporter, ended the campaign with very little idea as to how a President Romney would actually govern.”
—Eli Lehrer, President of the think tank R Street, via The Huffington Post
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Juan Williams: We’ve Entered the Era of Latinos
“This marks a new kind of politics. Before, it was about winning the blue-collar, white vote. Now, we’ve entered the era of Latinos. And the Republicans have done themselves no favors when it comes to their immigration policies.”
— Juan Williams, political analyst, via Fox News
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David Gergen: Republicans Not Lost Forever
“Republicans are not lost forever. But the fundamental issue is that it’s extremely dangerous for the country to have one of its major parties needing 90 percent of its votes from whites.”
—David Gergen, political pundit, via CNN News
(MS)
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COLUMBUS — Democrats in Ohio delivered big.
The happy crowd broke out into high fives, fist bumps, group hugs and chants of “four more years!” As they learned, on a screen showing an MSNBC feed, that their home state pushed President Barack Obama over the top to 270 electoral votes, and a second term.
The crowd here, an unusual mix of union groups, gay and black supporters and out-of-state Obama volunteers who had come from as far away as California and New York to knock on doors for the president this week, celebrated the win together without awkwardness, helped on by a bar stocked with Budweiser and Blue Moon.
As the state was called for the president, a group of gay men, who rode out on an LGBT For Obama bus to canvas for the president last week, hugged and kissed one another, some of them getting to their knees in thanks. “We’re not going back!” one of them cried, happily.
The mood here, festive from the start, began to turn downright joyful earlier in the evening as Sen. Sherrod Brown, a union favorite, was reelected, and Democratic victories began to pile up across the country.
Fierce, growing union support for Democrats and President Obama, buoyed not only by the auto bailout but also by a Republican-lead attack on the state on organized labor, may have made the difference for Obama in Ohio.
“A few, very, very rich people wanted to rig the election for themselves,” Sen. Brown told the Ohio room, promising the crowd, filled with “Sherrod Brown” placards, that he would not stop fighting for working people.
One aide to Sen. Brown told The Daily that the Obama victory in Ohio was thanks to an old-school, hard-won, grind-out-the-vote effort by Democrats, and nothing more. “We worked very, very, very hard,” the aide said. “That’s all it is.”
The win in Massachusetts by Elizabeth Warren, who recaptured Ted Kennedy’s long-held senate seat after a brutal face-off with Republican Sen. Scott Brown, seemed particularly satisfying to the Ohio Democrats, who turned the volume up on the megatron earlier in the evening to listen to Elizabeth Warren victory speech, and cheered when she told a Boston crowd, “YOU built that.”
(image via) (KW)
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Charles Krauthammer: Romney was a Transitional Figure
“I’m not in despair. Romney was a transitional figure. He ran as good a campaign as he could. But he’s a northeasterner. That’s now where the country is going. There’s a strong Republican bench that still hasn’t entered the game. He ran in a weak field,”
—Charles Krauthammer, political commenter, via Fox News
(MS)
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Mega donor Sheldon Adelson has left the building. Refused to concede as he went.
— Kyle Stock at Romney HQ
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Taegan Goddard: Big winner, Obamacare
“Another big winner tonight: Obamacare…Another winner: The Obama ground game…The GOP beg big on the Supreme court and then Mitt Romney ending Obamacre. They lost both badly…Republicans no longer have a leader. It will be interesting to see how they react.”
—Taegan Goddard, publisher of political wire, via twitter.
(MS)
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The Empire State Building in New York, lit blue in honor of President Barack Obama’s re-election to the presidency.
(image via @michaelsurtees) (KW)
