The country has spoken… President Barack Obama has been re-elected to a second term as President of the United States of America. Election 2012 is finally over. And that was painful. The House and the Senate remain mostly unchanged; We endured all of this pain to keep the same people in office. WTF. But we did learned a few things…

I think the most important thing I’ll be taking away from this exercise in popularity is that demographics do matter. Men, women – young, old – black, brown or white; We now know for sure that we are a country dominated by many varied people.

In previous posts, I talked about how every underrepresented group had lined up behind President Obama, but, that might not be the answer. It was the answer. Had Mitt Romney won, the answer would have been we still live in a country run by white men… old white men.

And it’s so revealing to hear the media, pundits and pollsters break down elections based on race, gender and even sexual orientation now. The fact is, demographics is the only sure thing about elections. Turnout can be unpredictable, polls are completely unreliable and campaigns and parties speak only for the purposes of self-preservation. But, if you get the right sector of society on your side and they get to the polls, you win. President Obama did that…

Mitt Romney was destined to lose this race – the primary confirmed that. When one persons was being attacked by ALL of the other potential candidates, who was it? When the GOP talked about what they wanted to see in the perfect candidate, was it Mitt Romney? Even after all of the other candidates dropped out, the GOP still seemed unconvinced and unenthusiastic about Romney.

Then he picked Paul Ryan as his running mate? They couldn’t have had more opposing positions within the same party! Thereafter, their campaign became an exercise in contradictions and mis-alignment. For nine solid months, Mitt Romney convinced no one; Then he had one good debate performance. I’m glad to see one incident didn’t override nine months of listless performance.

And did I mention all of Romney’s personal disconnects? The off-shore accounts making money in other countries… The 47% comments… his insensitivity for women’s issues. All just a recipe for failure on which he tried a last minute back-track. Didn’t work. He was just not the right candidate.

Republicans will try to save face by saying he ran a good race, but, it was a troubled race no matter how they attempt to spin it and the outcome is the confirmation. It’s also confirmation that the GOP needs to update their messages and positions. Now is not the time to continue in denial of the facts. They denied the fact that Mitt Romney was not the best candidate and it lost them the election. I hope they accept the fact that they need to reinvent themselves and use the next four years to do it.

Notice, I’ve mostly made mention of how and why Mitt Romney lost, not as much about how PBO won. Another fact: PBO had a weak story going into this election and everybody knows it. Luckily, he had an opponent with even bigger weaknesses. The sigh of relief being breathed by PBO, his campaign and his staff should be for running down a victory against a flawed opponent despite voters having expected more in his first term. It was Dodgeball…

So now, 2016 talk has already started. Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush. You can’t stop the cycle – just give in to it. I freely admit, I’m no fan of the Bush’s so, no Bush’s, but, I am a fan of John Huntsman. Even the Obama administration was afraid of Huntsman as an opponent. That’s the kind of candidate you want GOP. Someone who’s credibility starts from the moment they announce and endures throughout the entire campaign. Let the voters have two credible candidates from which to choose and let the process unfold. We might actually see a campaign about the issues, facts and candidate qualifications instead of mutual antagonism…

But, again, the GOP has so much more work to do than nominating the right candidate. Bad party positions with a good candidate still puts you at a disadvantage. Do the work, get your foundation right and put together an effort that can’t be beat. Have at it…

As for the current President and the current Congress; Like President Clinton’s second term, they know they’re stuck with him now – they might actually work together to serve our best interests, not theirs. Congress also knows that they have the lowest approval rating of any Congress since polling began. I think FORWARD sums it up pretty well.

Private sector: Stop sitting on your cash and start hiring!
Voters: Get out there and start spending some money so we can fix our economy!