Barack Obama Re-Elected President - Romney Camp Questions Ohio Call

8:17pm Pacific, Fox News and several other major networks called the state of Ohio for Barack Obama - effectively ending the 'inside straight' approach for Mitt Romney to achieve the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Presidency.   Romney needed to win Florida, Virginia, Ohio, and Colorado in order to have a path to 270 - and Barack Obama only needed to take one of those 4, particularly after Iowa was also called for him.

But now, at about 8:30pm - 8:45pm Pacific, some real questions are being raised not only by the Romney team, but by some of the Fox News consultants, like Karl Rove, over the state being called with only 73% of the Ohio vote counted and Mitt Romney trailing in Ohio by roughly 991 votes according to Ohio's Secretary of State.

Could this be another 2000 - when Florida was first called for George W. Bush, then called for Al Gore, then placed back into 'too close to call' pending the recounts which ultimately gave the state to George Bush by 517 votes?

Or are we to accept that Barack Obama has been re-elected, and will serve a second term facing a Democrat controlled Senate and a Republican controlled House - basically a continuation of the conditions we are facing today?

Fox News, for one, is not backing down from their call - their 'braintrust' who crunch the numbers are saying that the number of Obama votes still to be reported exceeds the possible number of Romney votes.

With this - the political situation in the US is fundamentally unchanged.  The Democrats will still hold a majority in the Senate.  The Republicans will still hold a majority in the House.  This means that President Barack Obama will need to govern with a split / divided Congress - just as we've had since January 2011.

The President still trails in the popular vote - and may yet be able to take a lead in the popular vote - but does his re-election provide a mandate that would break the gridlock we've seen since January 2011?  That is yet to be seen.  As a conservative, and seeing how the President tried to govern in the last 2 years, I personally would hope that the House would continue to hold that line.  But would the President then seek to use / claim more executive powers in his effort to break the gridlock and enact his progressive agenda?

Much of this will still have to play out.

But at this point of the night - who are the winners and losers tonight?  At first glance, here's what I am seeing / feeling...

Winners

1.  Barack Obama

2.  Negative campaigning and 'small' campaigning

3.  Mainstream Media Sophistry

4.  Democratic get out the vote effort - a D+6 to +7 turnout made the difference

Losers

1.  The nation and traditional American values

2.  Our youth - who will have to pay the bill when it comes due

3.  Israel

4.  The Republican ground game and get out the vote effort


One of our political parties has learned to bribe the American people with their own money - and is using that to obtain and hold onto power.  And nearly half - or just over half of the American people seem to want the country to become France, Spain, or Greece - believing government is the answer, more government handouts are the answer, that the government picking winners and losers works better than free markets, and the bill never comes due because the can can still be kicked down the road.

Part of me believes that we've crossed the Rubicon - and will be unable to roll back the 'fundamental change' that has been inflicted on this country.

Pessimistic?  Yes, I am.