Unless Barack Obama gets caught with a live boy or a dead girl, this election is over.
It has always looked likely that Obama would be reelected, if narrowly. The polls this summer showed a remarkably consistent, albeit small, lead for the president but since 9/11/12 the polls have just as consistently shown the president's lead widening nationally and in those individual states where the electoral college majority hinges.
The Republicans have lost this election, not just Romney the gaffe-prone candidate. "47%" was not a Romney gaffe, it was how he really felt. It was consistent with his prior statement that he didn't care for the poor, consistent with his and the Republican Party's message this year and in past years, that there are "makers" and "takers" and that his no-tax increase message would never resonate with the "takers." It is the "us" versus "them" politics of greed. The Republicans offered this message and this candidate to the nation.
Republicans make tax avoidance a civic virtue. Senator Lindsey Graham, defending Romney's refusal to release his tax returns, said in July "It's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally." For years Republicans have signed a "pledge" not to raise income taxes. For any reason: not for defense, not for deficit reduction, not for schools, not for highways, not for health. For everyone: not just for the poor or the middle class, but for the wealthy, wealthier, and wealthiest. And not just for individuals, for businesses too. 95% of Republicans in Congress have signed this pledge. Senator Graham and the Republicans have one of their own in "severely" conservative, severely wealthy Mitt Romney with his Swiss bank accounts, his Cayman Islands bank accounts, his 14% income tax, his 47% "them." They offered this message and this candidate to the nation.
The nation said no.
