A political pundit and Republican strategist finds it outrageous that President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party successfully convinced the American electorate that it best represents the middle class.
After a long campaign, the political situation has not changed -- Barack Obama is still president, Democrats control the Senate, and the GOP holds on to the House.
Tom Pauken served on Ronald Reagan's White House staff and later became chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He says the Democratic Party successfully deceived the American electorate.
"One of the most disturbing signs I saw in terms of these exit polls was who best represents the middle class," Pauken reports. "The idea that Barack Obama and the Democratic Party -- the most liberal regime in American history -- represent the middle class is outrageous, and yet they sold that message."
The political expert urges the GOP to revisit where it is as a party.
"I think we had the wrong messenger, and I'm very disappointed in the Senate races. I mean, we should have captured the White House; we should have won the Senate," he contends. "And the kind of leadership we got … quite frankly I wish the Karl Roves of the world would just go home and get out of the way and allow the group of conservatives to put this party back together and do it the right way."
Pauken goes on to suggest that the GOP use Ronald Reagan's successful formula.
As for Ohio, a pro-family activist says the strong turnout of rural Republicans did not materialize, giving President Obama four more years.
Phil Burress, chairman of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV), believed the key to a Romney win depended on rural Ohio voters coming out en masse to overcome Obama's advantage in the cities. But unfortunately, the dominant Republican turnout did not materialize.
"President Obama won, and we're going to be stuck with him for another four years. ObamaCare is going to go into full force, the economy's not going to get any better, and I just think that the people who voted for him the first time around did not want him to go out as the worst president in American history," Burress offers.
"They wanted to give him another four years to try to correct what he's done before, and we'll see it happening. I know that's a gloom report for America, but for the next four years we're going to pay the price because of people who wanted to vote for a president who does not know what he's doing."
Burress believes Obama's auto bailout was effective in buying votes in Ohio.
The 'perfect storm'
A conservative political scientist and election analyst says Hurricane Sandy and the successful demonization of Mitt Romney were key factors that led to Barack Obama's re-election.
On the day before the election, Dr. Charles W. Dunn of Regent University predicted that Hurricane Sandy could save Obama's presidency. And on election night, 42 percent of voters in exit polls said the "superstorm" was an important issue for them.
Dunn says Sandy proved to be the perfect storm for the president. "When [New Jersey] Governor [Chris] Christie chose to join arm-in-arm with the president in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, for several days Romney found himself excluded from the national political scene," he observes.
In addition, Dunn says the GOP presidential candidate was unable to overcome the incessant negative attacks from the Obama campaign machine. "They painted Romney as a villainous figure -- and Romney waited too late to respond to the distorted image of him," says the political scientist.
Dunn says Romney also was hurt by the unemployment dropping to below 8 percent the previous two months, creating an aura of a recovering economy and taking away the prime plank from Romney's platform.
Just give me one example
The party of big government had a good election, with the president winning re-election and Democrats retaining control of the Senate. American Family Radio's financial expert Dan Celia, however, wonders if that is best for the country.
"Give me one example of the efficiencies and effectiveness of government managing anything," he said on air on Wednesday. "If I could have one example, it might give me some assurance that maybe we'll be okay."
Celia says young Americans, in general, do not understand those examples of inefficiency.
"They haven't seen Amtrak, the Postal Service - I could go on and on," he said. "I mean, we have a Congress, they can't even have a budget. They're so inept at trying to keep a budget that it's so much easier for the Senate not to even approve a budget, because they can't deal with a yardstick in which they may be measured by."
Celia is CEO and president of Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries.
Pro-union initiative fails in Michigan
A ballot initiative in Michigan known as the Protect Our Jobs Amendment failed Tuesday. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy for the Michigan-based Mackinac Center, explains that Proposal 2, if it had been approved, "would have enshrined unionization in Michigan's constitution and gave government unions and effective veto over legislation. That went down 58 percent no to only about 41 percent."
According to Vernuccio, it was the most expensive ballot question in Michigan's history. "Both sides spent a little bit between $45 and $50 million for and against," he says.
Even though Democrats were largely successful in winning elections in Michigan on Tuesday, Vernuccio says one can see from this vote that Democrats are starting to back away from union policies.