Huffpost Election Analysis

It was one year ago today that Hillary Clinton announced plans to suspend her campaign for the Democratic nomination, and urged her supporters to unite behind Barack Obama.

With the post-election analysis season almost over, it's worth taking one final look at some of the characters who ensured President-elect Obama would make it to the White House.

In a poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood, Catholic voters' number-one response on family planning concerns were "too many unwanted children in America whose parents can't take care of them."

Unmarried women's crucial role in electing Obama is underscored by the "marriage gap" between their political preferences and those of married women.

On both values and issues, moderates line up with liberals to form a strong majority that isolates conservatives. Conservatives have had their day. This is a center-left, not a center-right nation.

Some soldiers' opinions I recently wrote about are theirs to have, even though they may be highly unpopular. Being unpopular does not, however, make their opinion any less valid nor criminal.

Though Europeans generally rejoiced in Barack Obama's election as 44th President of the US, a number of leading European lawmakers and journalists have made "foot-in-mouth comments."

In selecting his team, Obama should look to future opportunities -- to how he can help solve the critical problems of the nation and the world -- and not to past obligations.

How long is the honeymoon going to last?

Rather than preach, build or spread democracy, we proved that our system works. By winning, Obama did more to teach the Iraqis about democracy than four years of nation building has done.

Now that long journey into darkness has finally come to an end -- my own view is that the 2006 Congressional elections may have been the turning point.

In the wake of Obama's overwhelming victory, and Democratic gains in the House and Senate, conservatives are desperately trying to convince the world that these results are meaningless. "Democrats should not make the mistake of viewing Tuesday's results as a repudiation of conservatism," insisted John Boehner. "Barack Obama understands this is a center-right country," claimed Karl Rove. "This country remains every bit as center-right as it has for a generation," parroted Brent Bozell. And David Brooks dreamed of an Obama administration that understands "this was an election where the middle asserted itself." Drunk on self-delusion, a staggering GOP whistles past the electoral graveyard, missing the whole point of this election: the center has shifted, and positions that used to be considered left-wing -- on healthcare, on global warming, on corporate responsibility, on Iraq -- are now solidly mainstream.

Europe is rejoicing in the Obama victory and claiming it as a direct result of their moral superiority over Americans while at the same time hiding their own shortcomings and intolerances.

Barack Obama's victory could well be the third realigning election in the past century -- one that will be seen by historians as the beginning of an emerging Democratic majority.

Bill Ayers was not Barack Obama's touchstone; rather, it was Sam Cooke and his never-ending refrain, Change is gonna come. And now change has arrived, and we embrace it.

Further polling results will help to answer the critical question of why religious voters cast their ballots the way they did. But three factors are likely key to understanding the religious shift.

We do not choose the presidents who are truly ours, who shape our lives and our psyches. They are chosen for us when we are too young to vote.

Sadly, many voters did not see past their fears to understand how denying LGBT people rights is cut from the same cloth of discrimination that made Obama's election such a poignant event.

Prop. 8 passed, after Obama's speech. It was a bitter pill for progressives to swallow and a reminder that no matter who is president the public faces many significant issues on its own.

The one thing that all US Army personnel have in common is their choice to wear the uniform and volunteer to serve the nation, regardless of who is in charge and regardless of if they agree.

Religious fanatics rejoice! You did it! You won! You've succeeded in getting amendments passed in Florida, Arizona and California banning same-sex marriage! This is your crowning moment!

Obama did a much better job of reaching out to young, white evangelicals than Kerry did. It's therefore unsurprising that Obama employs the rhetoric of an earlier evangelical in his speeches.