Last night was a brutal one for Republicans, who not only lost the presidential election handily, but also saw their chances of taking control of the Senate dashed.
Republicans have a great deal of soul-searching to do, as the views of the electorate, combined with growing demographic changes, make the Republican brand less and less appealing.
President Obama was saddled with high unemployment and a sluggish economy, yet he still won by, at last count, over 3 million votes. He also took nearly every swing state.
Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican party was unable to present a persuasive alternative to an electorate that is becoming younger and more diverse.
Romney ran on a strategy of courting white voters, planning to take more than 60 percent of the white vote, which would have given them a majority of all votes cast.
But they fell short of that goal, taking less than 60 percent, and losing by much larger margins among women, minorities and young people.
As for Obama, rather than losing support from these demographics as was predicted, his support among women increased a hair, to 55 percent, buoyed by the Republicans refusal to quiet their rape-happy Senate candidates.
Hispanic turnout was also key, with Obama increasing his share of the Latino vote to 71 percent, a decisive factor in states like Florida, Nevada and Colorado. Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country, as well as the youngest, so Republicans will need to find a way to court the Latino vote if they ever want to get back in power.
Young people also turned out in higher numbers than 2008, by a single point.
Even with high unemployment and a gradual recovery, Republicans couldn't pull together a coherent message or a clear alternative.
Romney refused to spell out specifics of his economic and tax plan, and Paul Ryan essentially warned women to kiss Roe v. Wade goodbye if they were elected.
Romney vowed to repeal Obama's Affordable Care Act, which makes healthcare available to millions of low-income Americans and reduces the federal deficit.
And Romney alienated Hispanics when he said he'd repeal Obama's deportation deferment plan for young undocumented immigrants.
The Republican party is still the party of old, white, Christian men, but those people keep making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the country.
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