Two years and two billion dollars later, things are more or less the same... just gayer, higher and more Elizabeth Warren-y. This is special election edition of HUFFPOST HILL for November 7th, 2012:
ELECTION. LOSE. BAD. -- BARACK OBAMA DEFEATS MITT ROMNEY - He likes firing people. America? Not so much. Obama: "I return to the White House more determined & more inspired than ever about the work that lies ahead... Tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through ... I've never been more hopeful about our future... We remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America."
@MichelleObama: More than anything, I want to thank you all for everything. I am so grateful to every one of you for your support and your prayers. -mo
The nation now turns its gaze to Barbara Lee's bid for House Democratic vice chair.
ROMNEY CONCEDES - "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the nation in a different direction. But the nation chose another leader, so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation."
Mitt thanks Ann: "She would've been a wonderful first lady."
Obama thanks Michelle: "I have never loved you more."
The Washington Times Seth McLaughlin, drawing the final pool report: "And with that final message of bipartisanship from Gov. Romney we have a lid. That is a wrap on the 2012 presidential election."
Mitt deserved to lose more than his dad did.
Howard Fineman: "President Barack Obama did not just win reelection tonight. His victory signaled the irreversible triumph of a new, 21st-century America: multiracial, multi-ethnic, global in outlook and moving beyond centuries of racial, sexual, marital and religious tradition. Obama, the mixed-race son of Hawaii by way of Kansas, Indonesia, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, won reelection in good part because he not only embodied but spoke to that New America, as did the Democratic Party he leads. His victorious coalition spoke for and about him: a good share of the white vote (about 45 percent in Ohio, for example); 70 percent or so of the Latino vote across the country, according to experts; 96 percent of the African-American vote; and large proportions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The Republican Party, by contrast, has been reduced to a rump parliament of Caucasian traditionalism: white, married, church-going -- to oversimplify only slightly. 'It's a catastrophe,' said GOP strategist Steve Schmidt. 'This is, this will have to be, the last time that the Republican Party tries to win this way.' [HuffPost]
Let's remember something: Obama pulled away by savaging Romney as a heartless capitalist pig. This stuff works, people. To the barricades!
Everywhere that Mitt Romney has lived hates him. Romney lost his childhood state, Michigan, the state he governed, Massachusetts, and the state he vacationed in, New Hampshire. Neighbors. Disillusioned. Bad.
Atlas shrugged in a very ambivalent way tonight as Obama/Biden carried Wisconsin. WIth the loss, Romney/Ryan became the first ticket to lose both its home states since 1972, when George McGovern and Sargent Shriver lost South Dakota and Maryland, respectively.
David Axelrod will keep his mustache. The senior Obama campaign advisor bet MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that he would shave his famed facial hair if Mitt Romney won Minnesota, Michigan or Pennsylvania. Having lost all three, Ax will keep his 'stache. No word on whether Scarborough will grow a set of contrition muttonchops.
HuffPost Pollster Mark Blumenthal got it right.
@cosentino: For the Nate-haters, here's the 538 prediction and actual results side by side pic.twitter.com/jbny4pRX
FOX NEWS HAS A VERY HARD TIME ACCEPTING ALL THIS - Remember when Ashlee Simpson's lip sync track went out on SNL? That's kind of what Karl Rove went through this evening. After the networks had declared President Obama the winner, Fox News' Megyn Kelly, prompted by whining from Rove, made an impromptu trip to the network's decision desk -- on camera, mind you -- to confirm with her editors that the president had, in fact, won reelection. All the while, Karl Rove was bloviating about how Ohio had been called too early. It was amazing television, the collision of ideology and reality in real time. [BuzzFeed]
@realDonaldTrump: This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!
The highlight of our evening was Amanda Terkel crashing Grim's appearance on HuffPost Live in a horse mask.
PARANOID SELF-LOATHING GOP LOBBYIST SEES THE BRIGHT SIDE - HuffPost Hill's Paranoid Self-Loathing GOP Lobbyist -- who started bringing his own curtain to his polling place after the old voting booths were replaced -- is coming to terms with the Democrats' big win tonight. "I'm pretty happy about the mandate House Republicans secured in massive turnout," PSLGOPL writes." I wish our Senate candidates would stop discussing rape." Thanks, PSLGOPL!
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Unemployment still bad. [Hang in there!]
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DEMOCRATS KEEP CONTROL OF SENATE, PROGRESSIVES MAKE BIG GAINS
Harry Reid statement on keeping Senate: "Now that the election is over, it's time to put politics aside, and work together to find solutions. The strategy of obstruction, gridlock and delay was soundly rejected by the American people. Now, they are looking to us for solutions."
Elizabeth Warren defeated Scott Brown to become Massachusetts' first Native American senator. We kid! We kid! Everyone at Emily's List, PCCC, and the like please hold off on the hate mail. The Senate Banking Committee will never be the same.
@mattyglesias: Elizabeth Warren is the first former TPM blogger to become a US Senator.
@goldfarb: Looking like Senate R's should have confirmed Elizabeth Warren...
Wisconsin voters elected Tammy Baldwin to replace Herb Kohl, the Senate's most outspoken member (really, when WASN'T that guy on TV?). Of course, when Baldwin is sworn in she will become the first openly gay or lesbian senator in the Upper Chamber's history... unless there's a Mike Crapo statement we totally missed. It gets better.
Big wins tonight for people who don't think God likes rape or think that uteri have central nervous systems: Claire McCaskill defeated Todd Akin in Missouri and Joe Donnelly triumphed over Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Akin's fate was sealed when he told a Missouri reporter that "If it's legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," as if the female reproductive system has an emergency brake. During the final debate, Mourdock responded to a question about abortion by saying, "I've struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
George Allen, Washington's favorite adult who look like he just came from a golf bros/tennis hoes college theme party, lost Virginia's open Senate seat to Tim Kaine. Dude was such a terrible candidate he lost to the former chair of the Democratic National Committee in Virginia. New York called, it wants its political leanings back.
Independent former Governor Angus King handily defeated Republican Charles Summers and Democrat Cynthia Dill in Maine. Though King is an independent, he is expected to caucus with the Democrats, though he has said the issue is still up in the air. Where he lands will depend largely on committee assignments and, to a lesser extent, the office space he is offered (no one wants to be near Carl Levin's office when his dubstep band -- MichLuv -- is practicing, y'know?).
Chris Murphy defeated Linda McMahon in the race for the open Connecticut Senate seat; this despite McMahon's tactic of spending $42 million of her own money and handing out flyers splashed with her face and that of President Obama. Oh, and that sound you just heard? Harry Reid chest bumping anyone in sight for not having to deal with Joe Lieberman anymore.
Joe Manchin retained his West Virginia Senate seat. With Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman departing the Senate, Manchin will bear a heavy burden in the next Congress as Harry Reid's most disobedient caucus member.
REPUBLICANS KEEP CONTROL OF THE HOUSE - HuffPost: "Republicans will remain the majority party in the House of Representatives, NBC and CNN projected on Tuesday night. Going into Election Day, the GOP was expected to stay in control of the chamber. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said that he was confident about his party's chances before the results came in." [HuffPost]
Bad news for HuffPost's traffic: Allen West lost.
Alan "Die Quickly" Grayson won back his old Florida House seat. Most readers may remember Grayson as the fire-breathing progressive whose impassioned "die quickly" defense of healthcare reform ate up a news cycle or two, but we will always know him as the guy with super sick crocodile shoes.
WASHINGTON AND COLORADO LEGALIZE POT - You may now stare at your hands in peace, Seattle.
GAY MARRIAGE APPROVED IN MAINE AND MARYLAND - Welcome to divorce, ladies and germs.
Democrat Maggie Hassan defeated Republican/evil pirate Ovide Lamontagne in New Hampshire's gubernatorial race. Hassan will be the only female Democratic governor in the country. God be with you, Governor-elect Hassan, you and your state-run liquor and wine outlets.
BECAUSE YOU'VE PUT UP WITH SO MUCH GODDAMN ELECTION COVERAGE - Fifty dogs with "I Voted" stickers.
TWITTERAMA
@pourmecoffee: Exit Polls: Marijuana legalization initiative supporters pretty sure they voted for it, man, but can't remember, hey are you holding?
@bryanallain: BREAKING: CNN reporting that Ohio is 75% vowels.
@brianbeutler: #nytbooks RT @fivethirtyeight On The Wall, The Writing.
@nickgillespie: Projected loser: most of us.
@delrayser: Anti-Tim Kaine PAC ad just ran on CNN. An hour after polls closed in VA. Seems like an excellent use of resources.
@ryanbeckwith: BREAKING: AP CALLS ... THIS IS CRAZY ... ME, MAYBE?
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WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU, SEAMUS!!!