TeamPOLITICO: Dec. 8, 2012 - 6:33 PM EST

After the “47 percent” tape came out, meanwhile, Romney’s team decided to make the candidate “be more presidential,” according to Beeson, by putting him behind a podium more often and having him wear suits more often.

He was behind a podium and in a suit when he made the 47% comment

That comment (thanks Rush) and the superior Obama campaign did Romney in

There is much truth here but when it comes down to it, the election came down to trust. Also, right after the election, there were many pundits and analysts talking about about segments of the electorate that won or lost the election based on their race, gender socil status and gender. At that time, I wrote down my feelings as to why I thought the President was re-elected. They are all not exactly germaine to this article but, I think they are still relevent. They are as follows:

It’s post election, the President has been given another four years to finish the job he started to help the country recover from the great recession and embarq on setting the tone for the near and farther reaching future of America. I have been amazed at the pundits, journalists, Analysts, and politicians have in large part been expounding on the cause of Romneys defeat. I read that it’s due to the President getting the Hispanic, Afro-American, Union Members and Womens vote. How the President did “this and that” and that Romney “did not”. That Romney failed to connect with, cater to, identify with, and had contrasting policies with the growing populist vote of these “minorities”. I’ve read all the statistical evidence supporting this premise. Much of their analysis was logical and true, as far as it went. It is hard to argue with those statistics….However, I think they have missed the point. I believe that the President was re-elected because he put the good of the country first. His approach has been to make economic recovery for the working and middle class his priority. It is logical that the more people have jobs, the more taxes are raised and since those people have more money to spend. Demand for product/services will increase. The self stated Political oppositions approach, was to make the President a “one term president”. Despite their four year opposition to just about everything that the President wanted or proposed, with the support of fellow Democrats, the President were able to accomplish much toward the recovery and likely avoid another great depression. The thought occurred to me that this Republican strategy has been a badly misguided and a clearly unpatriotic approach. I would have thought their first priority would have been to help restore the economy and help create jobs. But no, they put themselves before the good of the people and country. For this betrayal to America, I believe the working and “regular” people (The masses) saw through their folly and recognized that the President was doing the right things, in the right way to help the country recover; and re-elect him..

Were Afro Americans, Hispanics, Union Members and Women feeling disenfranchised? I would reply a resounding YES to that question. Did they vote for the President in greater numbers than “other” Americans? YES they did! The point that the analyst, pundits, journalists and politicians missed is that the people who voted for President Obama are the common sense, clear thinking, understanding, empathetic AMERICAN MIDDLE AND WORKING PEOPLE. They recognized that the President is trying to protect the entire country….the wealthy, the poor and everyone in between. They recognized that we “are all in the same boat and that we will sink or swim TOGETHER. They recognize that while the President is not always correct, and that they do not always agree with everything he said, they trusted him. However, they also recognize that compromise is required if we are to return the country to it’s previous economic greatness.

This election was not as many suggested the result of racial , ethnic or gender bias. In truth, the election reflected an awareness or sense of economic fairness. It was the result of more American people believing that the Presidents policies and plans for the future were based in the “trickle up” approach. Providing opportunity for education, jobs, innovation, entrepreneurial endeavors, health care etc. is at least as important for working and middle class people as it is for those who have already achieved status and wealth. Fairness counted in their perspective as to how we would be successful…FAIRNESS should never be underrated.

AmericanDave: Dec. 8, 2012 - 7:09 PM EST

O'Bama won, first of all, because of nation-wide voter fraud. Regardless of what Romney had done, he'd have had a hard time overcoming the fraud which occurred in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.

Can you provide some reporting on this widespread fraud.

I'm sure FoxNews would have done multiple stories on it

Hey Unamerican Dave....you keep telling yourself that. Does it make you feel better. The Obama campaign was superior to the Romney campaign and the President won because the majority of the electorate felt that he cared about everyone, not just the 1%. Get over yourself and deal with it. Enjoy the next four years and beyond.

AmericanDave: Dec. 8, 2012 - 7:09 PM EST

This article is 99 percent BS. It is an perfect example of deliberate obsfuscation. O'Bama won, first of all, because of nation-wide voter fraud.

The election came out precisely the way the aggregate polling indicated it was going. There is no way to successfully sync these two independent measures of the electorate.

You'd have to be stupid to think otherwise.

BTW, AmericanDave... Obama doesn't just win with 'disenfranchised' voters - college-educated and Asians also went his way... Asian minorities by an amazing margin.

Maybe Obama really won. Maybe you're just an angry bigot grasping at any lifeline Fox News and the conservative blogosphere will throw to your self-image. Maybe voter fraud, gifts, and skewed polls aren't the reason Republicans failed to get 50% of American voters in five of the last six presidential elections.

Maybe you're just wrong.

I will make this simple so even the right wingers can follow it:

GOP policies suck. They are bad for America - you have all the low information voters - you will never get the educated voters with your appeal to hate, servicing the rich and attacking the middle class.

It has NOTHING to do with running a successful campaign.

FOR REPUBLICANS, Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed. in the New York of December 7-9, 2012 should be a must read before any other Republican self-serving analysis. In fact, I recommend it to every one who cares to know what is really happening with the GOP in today's American political experience.

Jack Brockway: Dec. 8, 2012 - 9:47 PM EST

Brilliant and spot-on.

Enjoyable read.

The nut graph: "The Mayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. It was just a select world: the G.O.P. universe of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys."

Hey it's over and barry won and so can the subject just go away?