Why the election turned out the way it did

I didn't want to write this before the election in case it swayed people's vote. But here are the reasons Mitt Romney lost the election:

• It was obvious from the beginning that Mr. Romney was not going to even come close to carrying the state where he had been Governor (Massachusetts) - people wondered what the people of Massachusetts knew about him
• As the election neared, it was also obvious that Mr. Romney was not going to carry the state where he had been born (Michigan) and where his father had been Governor - this was probably because Mr. Romney disagreed with helping those automobile corporations
• Mr. Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, was clearly not going to help them carry his home state (Wisconsin)
• People probably realized that the recession was world-wide and the slow recovery wasn't Mr. Obama's fault

So that's it. The definitive list. But, just in case Mitt Romney had won the election, I was ready with some reasons why Barack Obama lost the election:

• That first debate was a killer and it showed him as indecisive and not in touch and allowed Mr. Romney to gain momentum
• The attack and loss of life at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya was poorly handled and the explanations were weak and confusing
• On Election Day, Mr. Romney kept campaigning while Mr. Obama took the day off
• The Obama campaign didn't exploit the four points I made about why Mr. Romney lost the election!

There you have it. I was prepared with two sets of reasons. Like a good debater, who is supposed to be able to win a debate taking one side of an argument and then take the other side and win a debate from the opposite side, I had both sides covered. That is why I mistrust debates of any kind. A skilled debater can take any position and still win.

[Update: As I think more about this, and consider all the blunders made by both sides, maybe neither side really wanted to win this election. Considering the daunting tasks still ahead and each side's readiness to pounce on any miscue, who wants all the trouble?]