Most shocking election outcomes

[mileslunn]

Here are mine.

1.  Obama gets over 40% in Alaska

2.  Romney does better in Arizona despite McCain being from there and the fact he did worse amongst Latinos than McCain.  I still expected Romney win here but thought it would have been closer.

3.  Obama wins by almost as large a margin in Vermont and Hawaii.  I expected Obama to win big in both, but I thought Romney would get at least 33% in both states. 

4.  Romney does worse than Bush in 2004 in Idaho.  I figured being the state with the second highest Mormon population, he would have done at least as well as Bush in 2004.

5.  Networks call Michigan on exit polls alone.  I expected Obama to win here, but not on exit polls alone.

6.  The networks call Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania for Obama before they call Missouri for Romney.  Not surprised at the results, just how quickly they called the swing states for Obama. 

7.  The networks call the race by 11:15 PM (Eastern Time).  I thought they would call it between 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM, mind you it seems this time around the results came in faster than in some previous elections. 

[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.

[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%.