Four more years

So Obama won fairly comfortably in the end, though Romney turned out to be a much better candidate than I had expected, especially after he quietly dumped most of the wingnut baggage he had been obliged to pick up to get through the primaries.

It’ll be interesting to see what lessons Republicans learn from this defeat, and their failure to dent Democrat control of the Senate, which was at least partly thanks to the blunders of Tea Party favourites Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. The obvious, sensible, conclusion would be that they have to move towards the centre, but that’s the obvious, sensible conclusion they have repeatedly failed to appreciate in the last four years.

Other results approving same-sex marriage and legalising marijuana made it a good night for the progressively-minded. Obama will probably end up disappointing us again, but let’s enjoy this while it lasts.