Eventually, I feel pretty confident that those tasked with diagnosing the Republican failure to unseat Obama in 2012 will eventually settle on something like, "Well, we ended up with a pretty implausible nominee who couldn't relate to normal human-Americans after the nativist clique that took over the party in 2010 ran off many of our more talented prospects from the race and kept them on the sidelines. And our long primary season was pretty goofy and alienating. Also, as subpar as our candidate was, it probably didn't help matters that we spent the lion's share of the campaign season slagging him publicly until he turned in that one decent debate performance. In retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have done that.
The days ahead will require commitment and tolerance from all of us, but we will not forget why we voted for this President. We will continue to fight for those who may not have a voice, and we will deflect negativity from all sides. We must be strong enough to emulate those stronger than us like Mandela, like Dr. King.