Most shocking election outcomes

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

After all, Romney is a North-East guy, perhaps the best governor in Massachusetts history. I figured he would have appeal in the area.

I believe I told Winfield this a week or so ago.
Ever heard of John Hancock? Samuel Adams? Calvin Coolidge? John Volpe? Mike Dukakis? Bill Weld? Deval Patrick?

Hancock, Adams, Coolidge, Volpe, and Weld, definitely.  Maybe not on Dukakis or Patrick.  How about Franics Sargent or Paul Cellucci?

I'd say yes to Dukakis and Sargent, no to Patrick and Cellucci. I don't think any of them are the 'best governor in Massachusetts history', but I'm not sure who I'd say was.

[memphis]

I was almost certain that the election would be called at 11 EST, as soon as the polls closed on the West Coast. It wasn't called until 11:18.

[solarstorm]

What's shocking about Delaware? That was basically the result I expected there.

I didn't expect Biden's home state to swing so heavily towards the Republican column.

[Antonio the Sixth]

What's shocking about Delaware? That was basically the result I expected there.

I didn't expect Biden's home state to swing so heavily towards the Republican column.

As I said in another thread, Home States tend to trend away from their native son the second time he's on ballot. Delaware's swing in 2008 was pretty huge, so this is a logical reversion to the mean.

What I find really shocking is that Hawaii somehow found a way to trend dem again.

[You kip if you want to...]

The most shocking thing that I learned from this election is that, apparently, Mitt Romney doesn't have someone to pump his gas (petrol) for him.

[mileslunn]

Not surprised at the Delaware results as from a historical perspective 59-40 is still a very good Democrat showing.  As for Litchfeld County I believe it is pretty white and also quite wealthy so I think on economic issues they would be fairly conservative.  It was probably the hawkish foreign policy and religious right that turned them away from the GOP in 2008 and even then it was pretty close 51-47 for Obama in 2008 so not a surprise it swung back to the GOP.

As for Paul Cellucci as governor, I cannot comment on that, but I can say he is probably one of the worst American ambassadors to Canada (Bush appointed him shortly after he left as governor) we have ever had if not they worst.  He frequently lectured us when we took policies contrary to the Bush administration (we had a Liberal government back then who often took a different approach) and was extremely undiplomatic.

[sentinel]

Can I say Florida?!!!

Working weekend after weekend, talking to everyone, phonebanking, and seeing the polls and then seeing us keep Florida competitive and LEAD most of the night and eventually win the state had to be my favorite surprise of the night.

Agreed. I spent thousands of hours on a Congressional campaign, had the best time of my life, but in the end, we lost, which was not surprising in the race for Congress, but I expected Romney to pull it off.

Florida was the biggest surprise for me and I called it wrong as well.

[Badger]

For me it was Ben Chandler losing after surviving 2010. I guess I didn't realize how bad he was gerrymandered this time around.

EDIT: He was (supposedly) HELPED by Democratic redistricting! Yeah, definitely a surprise.

[Wisconsin+17]

Romney finally won a southern state.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

(Bush appointed him shortly after he left as governor)

Not quite. He left as governor because Bush appointed him. He was the second governor in a row to resign after being appointed ambassador to some neighboring country, although the Senate never confirmed Weld for Mexico City because Jesse Helms wouldn't give a Republican who wasn't a frothing reactionary the dignity of a Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

[tokar]

These surprised me:

Obama's win in Florida.
The size of the Obama wins in CO, IA, VA, and NH.
The narrow Romney margin in NC (while the Republican waltzed to a win in the governor's race).
The Senate races in MT, ND, NV (narrowness of the Heller win), and VA (large margin of the Kaine win).
Margin of the Democratic win in the NH governorship.
The number of seats the Democrats picked up in the NH H of R (something like 114).
Barrow's win in Georgia; close House race in HI-2, close House race in NE-2.
The slow vote counting in CA and AK.  Pathetic!  I guess it is typical in CA and perhaps the blizzards in AK have slowed counting. 
Romney's popular vote total perhaps not exceeding McCain's (though with CA, WA, and AK so slow to finish counting, he might yet beat McCain's total).
Obama's national popular vote lead.  I expected it to be < 1 million votes.

Hit the nail on the head there for me (sans the stuff about NH HoR, Georgia...as I knew about neither until I heard about it on TV).

Regarding VA-Senate/Kaine. He was a popular former governor. Popular former governors fare pretty well.  In this year the margin wasn't all that significant (5.1 vs 3.7), but 2008 was...yeesh. Obama did a +6.3 there, but popular former Governor Mark Warner? +31.3.

[Badger]

Romney finally won a southern state.

Heh.

Now, now--he did win VA (sort of). And TX too IIRC?

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Romney finally won a southern state.

Heh.

Now, now--he did win VA (sort of). And TX too IIRC?

AR, KY, WV, NC, FL.

[WalterMitty]

montana.  figured obama would do better there.

[mileslunn]

Romney finally won a southern state.

Heh.

Now, now--he did win VA (sort of). And TX too IIRC?

I presume you are being sarcastic here.  The South is pretty solidly Republican so it would be a shocker for him not win.  Bill Clinton who was from the South was the last Democrat to be competitive in the South and Jimmy Carter (another Southerner) was the last Democrat to actually win the South in 1976.  I think the fact Obama won Virginia and Florida both nominally southern states (They were both confederate states in the civil war) is more amazing, otherwise Al Gore a white southerner couldn't carry a southern state (unless you consider Delaware and Maryland as southern states) and neither could Kerry a White Northeasterner, whereas an African-American with a Muslim sounding name (I know he is not Muslim, but his middle name Hussein is generally a Muslim name) could win two former confederate states.  I think part of that is changing demographics in two states, but I think Obama also realized the South Atlantic, not the Mid South or Gulf States was where the Democrats had the most potential whereas prior to him many Democrats focused on states that historically went Democrat and ignored trends. 

[mileslunn]

montana.  figured obama would do better there.

Not a surprise to me as Montana has a strong libertarian streak so if anything Obama did better than I might suspect he would have.  True they are not social conservatives, but on economic issues it is very much a state that is far small government and since this election focused more on economic than social issues, I am not too surprised he only got 42%.

[Badger]

Romney finally won a southern state.

Heh.

Now, now--he did win VA (sort of). And TX too IIRC?

I presume you are being sarcastic here.  The South is pretty solidly Republican so it would be a shocker for him not win.  Bill Clinton who was from the South was the last Democrat to be competitive in the South and Jimmy Carter (another Southerner) was the last Democrat to actually win the South in 1976.  I think the fact Obama won Virginia and Florida both nominally southern states (They were both confederate states in the civil war) is more amazing, otherwise Al Gore a white southerner couldn't carry a southern state (unless you consider Delaware and Maryland as southern states) and neither could Kerry a White Northeasterner, whereas an African-American with a Muslim sounding name (I know he is not Muslim, but his middle name Hussein is generally a Muslim name) could win two former confederate states.  I think part of that is changing demographics in two states, but I think Obama also realized the South Atlantic, not the Mid South or Gulf States was where the Democrats had the most potential whereas prior to him many Democrats focused on states that historically went Democrat and ignored trends. 

I BELIEVE Ben Kenobi & I were referring to Romney's poor performance in southern PRIMARIES.

[sg0508]

FL.  The old saying is that the GOP cannot win without OH and the president won FL again.  If the GOP loses its grip on FL (and the demographics issue there became evident), there's almost no path to 270 going forward.