Yes,President Obama Won A Mandate

++For election night and about a week afterwards, I enjoyed e-mail silence from all those who insisted Willard Romney would win a landslide, the African American community wouldn't turnout,young people won't vote and women would not create a gender gap.

++The fact of the matter is that President Obama joins one other President who earned more than 61 million votes--himself. No other President has garnered such popular votes. His 2008 election was the record. No Democrats has carried Florida twice since FDR. 

++So while we are hearing one excuse after another from Republicans for their loss,including Karl Rove's improbable excuse that CrossRoads USA made it closer, there are some basic fundamental facts about elections since the mid-1900s and mid-2oth century that remain true. 

++So let me make this simple:
1.No incumbent with an approval rating of 52% has ever lost.
2. No Republican starting with Abraham Lincoln has ever won the White House without winning Ohio. James K. Polk did as a Democrat.
3. No Republican has ever won the White House while losing his political home state. Mitt Romney lost Massachusetts by a larger percentage than George McGovern lost South Dakota during the 1972 landslide to Richard Nixon. Romney also lost New Hampshire, Michigan,and California, where he has residences. The only "home" state he won was Utah.
4. And in the 21st Century, no candidate has ever won who refused to go on the Dave Letterman show after winning his party's nomination. It is true the road to the White House is through Dave Letterman.

There, that's simple.

++Mitt Romney won all states where it is legal to have sex with a horse. 

++Paul Ryan not only lost his home state of Wisconsin but also his hometown,Janesville. That's pretty low.

++For those of us who have spent a lifetime getting people in other countries to vote, the restrictions on voting in the United States and attempts by various states to thwart minority participation is a disgrace. Before the next national election, the United States must make efforts to reform its electoral system. Waiting in line for eight hours to vote is a disgrace. Florida made us look like a Banana Republic. 

++My hat is off to the people of Puerto Rico who voted to become a state. President Obama promised he would support their decision. Now let's see whether Congress obliges. Don't hold your breath.

++What prevented a total Democratic blow-out was the gerrymandering of 2010. Democrats won over 50% of the popular vote in House races but came up short. That is why Paul Ryan's statement that the House Republicans have a mandate is laughable. 

++Some of my favorites won--Elizabeth Warren being one of them. But let's applaud Heidi Heitkampf from North Dakota. Heidi ran when Democrats declined because this seat was supposed to be an automatic pick-up. She defeated Rick Berg by running a campaign that took Tip O'Neil's belief of "All politics is local" to a state level. The margin of her victory was provided by the native American vote in North Dakota, which was mobilized by the Democrats and ignored by the Republicans.