Election night 2012

Just so happy with the results, they exceed my wildest hopes.

Obama won over 300 electoral votes, including most of the battleground states (FL is still too close to call, but he's ahead there too). This despite aggressive Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters in several states.

Dems gained 2 seats in the Senate, and elected a record number of women:

Re-elected despite strong Republican efforts: Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Claire McCaskill  in Missouri.

Elected: Eliz Warren in Massachusetts (beat incumbent), Patrick Murphy in Connecticut (beat incumbent), Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Ben Nelson in Florida, Tim Kaine in Virginia.

Dan Maffei took his Congressional seat back from Ann Marie Buerkle, despite a strong showing by the Green Party candidate, Ursula Rozum.

Al Stirpe also took his State Assembly seat back, from Don Miller.

After 32 straight defeats (pun intended), gay marriage ballot initiatives passed in all 3 states where they appeared (Washington, Maryland, Maine), and the anti measure in Missouri was defeated. A new day for this issue!

Ballot initiatives for recreational marijuana passed in Colorado and Washington.

Other highlights:

Nate Silver predicted all 50 states - he's an undisputed rock start now.

The demographics were fascinating: Obama got even more of the Hispanic vote than he did in 2012, the gender gap persisted - Obama got almost 10% more women than Mitt (Mitt only got 7% more men), and more 18-25 years voted in 2012 than 2008.  Obama got less of the Jewish vote, but still 70%.

This election shows that concerns about the economy just do not trump hateful rhetoric that demeans important constituencies.

A few sad things: Michelle Bachman retained her seat; Bob Kerrey lost the Senate seat in Nebraska (which he held for 2 terms previously, and which was vacated by the retirement of Ben Nelson) - the only Senate gain by the Republicans; Paul Ryan returns to the House and retains his Budget Committee chairmanship; Arizona continues to be embarrassing.