What Happened Tonight and Why

President Barack Obama won better than predicted. He won because he seemed like a reasonable and pragmatic president, as the management of the Sandy emergency demonstrated a few hours before the vote. He won because he convinced the undecided, as the victory in the swing states demonstrated immediately after the vote. The Americans do not like to interrupt the work of a president after only one term — this is an established rule. Good job, then, Mr. President.

Challenger Mitt Romney lost worse than predicted. He lost because he did not really stir up his own base or convince the many undecided. He did not choose the path of the moderate Republican candidate all the way, nor did he choose the path of the hard and straight lunge for the questions about the economy by presenting truly and with conviction a liberalistic alternative to Democratic interventionism. He chose Paul Ryan — who also had an alternative budget — as his vice president, but then he hid him. Either he should not have been chosen or he should not have been hidden.

It is not a total defeat for the Republican Party; rather, half of America (half of those who vote) votes Republican, and above all, the GOP retains the majority in the House and so holds power over a large part of the country’s fiscal decisions in the coming years.

However, the Republicans, in order to return to victory in a country ever more multicultural and Latino, have to seriously rethink many of their more rigid positions with regard to immigration.