memeorandum: DON'T BLAME ROMNEY — We spent billions of dollars and billions … (Ann Coulter/Official)

12:45 PM ET, November 8, 2012

Top Items:

Romneyworld reckoning begins — BOSTON — Advisers to Mitt Romney insisted Wednesday that they were surprised by the scale of their loss to President Barack Obama, while big-time GOP donors griped about the campaign's unflinching confidence in the final stretch.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Wake up America, Power Line, New York Times, Connecting.the.Dots and Balloon Juice

Erick Erickson / RedState:

We Forget — There is no permanence in politics. All is fleeting. All is cyclical. We find comfort in our cycle and distress when others rise to the top. — Right now, conservatives are bitterly disappointed. Some choose to check out mentally. Some have decided to throw in the towel.

Discussion: The Other McCain, The Lonely Conservative and Fox News

New York Times:

Obama Campaign Clawed Back After a Dismal Debate — Seven minutes into the first presidential debate, the mood turned from tense to grim inside the room at the University of Denver where Obama staff members were following the encounter. Top aides monitoring focus groups …

Discussion: GOP 12 and Business Insider

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Conservative Reaction To Election '12, Part II: More, Not Less, Ideology, Please

Discussion: Hullabaloo, National Review and Eschaton

Robert Costa / National Review:
Romney Adviser: It Was the Messaging

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com, Hot Air, CNN, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway, Washington Examiner, The Atlantic Online and Balloon Juice

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Rove's On-Air Rebuttal of Fox's Ohio Vote Call Raises Questions About His Role — It was 11:13 p.m. on Tuesday, the moment that Fox News had called Ohio for President Obama. Karl Rove stood just off camera, his phone glued to his ear. On the other end was a senior Romney campaign official …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Jon Stewart Gleefully Rips Into Fox News Election Coverage: ‘Avalanche On Bullsh*t Mountain’ — Jon Stewart recapped all the big news from last night's election, but saved his harshest criticisms for Fox News, Karl Rove, and in particular, five fateful minutes of the network in near-pandemonium …

Discussion: Business Insider, Booman Tribune, The Raw Story and The Week

Jason Wallace / CBS Las Vegas:

Vegas Employer: Obama Won, So I Fired 22 Employees — LAS VEGAS (CBS Las Vegas) — A Las Vegas business owner with 114 employees fired 22 workers today, apparently as a direct result of President Obama's re-election. — “David” (he asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) …

Discussion: Human Events, Crooks and Liars, Weasel Zippers, Wake up America and Gawker

Dan Snierson / Inside TV:

Vice President Joe Biden to guest on ‘Parks and Recreation’ — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO — Next week's episode of Parks and Recreation is going to have a VIP: the VP. — Joe Biden — yes, the very guy who was re-elected Vice President of the United States less than 24 hours ago …

Discussion: E! Online, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Guardian, The Daily Caller, DCist, The Raw Story and Gawker

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Biden to cameo on ‘Parks and Recreation’

Discussion: CNN and nation.foxnews.com

Bill Carter / New York Times:
No Method Acting: On Sitcom, Biden Plays Biden

Discussion: Business Insider, Weekly Standard and NewsBusters.org

Alex Seitz-Wald / Salon:

GOP civil war: Herman Cain calls for third party — As the GOP fights itself in the wake of Mitt Romney's loss, calls for a third party emerge — It's been less than 24 hours since the polls closed and already the first shots in an emerging civil war within the conservative movement are being fired.

Discussion: US News, Politico, Althouse, The Agonist, Outside the Beltway, msnbc.com, americanthinker.com, Ballot Box, The Daily Caller and Washington Post

Ashley Killough / CNN:
LaTourette: Tea party response to Romney loss is ‘crap’

Discussion: Politico, ABCNEWS and Hot Air

Rebecca Berg / BuzzFeed: Republicans Prepare For Soul-Searching After Senate Rout

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Kay Bailey Hutchison: GOP can't ‘throw away’ women

Discussion: CNN

Jeff G. / protein wisdom:

The best thing about embracing your Hobbitry... ...Is that you can stop caring what the GOP establishment and its mouthpieces think about you. — And you can say things like this: if Chris Christie or Jeb Bush are ever put up for national office, I'll actively campaign against them.

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Ann Coulter / Official:
DON'T BLAME ROMNEY — We spent billions of dollars and billions …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

The GOP's Hispanic Nightmare — Republicans' minority outreach problems go way, way beyond immigration. — Antonia Gonzalez of Seattle a Latinos for Obama hat during the DNC. The Democrats have a decided advantage with Latino voters. — White people are still very important …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review, The New Republic, Spectator, The Daily Beast, NBC Latino and The Atlantic Online

Pew Hispanic Center:
Latino Voters in the 2012 Election

Discussion: Firedoglake, PewResearch.org, Riptide 2.0, NBC Latino, The Atlantic Online, American Prospect and The Fix

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Obama's Victory Presents G.O.P. With Demographic Test

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Prairie Weather and msnbc.com

CNBC:

Boeing Announces Big Layoffs in Defense Division — Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California and consolidate several business units to cut costs. — The company [BA Loading...

Discussion: Twitchy, Weasel Zippers, Israel Matzav, UrbanGrounds, Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com and The Lonely Conservative

Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:

The Case of the Missing White Voters — One of the more intriguing narratives for election 2012 was proposed by political scientist Brendan Nyhan fairly early on: that it was “Bizarro 2004.” The parallels to that year certainly were eerie: An incumbent adored by his base …

Discussion: Power Line, Battleground Watch and Israel Matzav

Anne Sorock / rebelpundit:

Obama supporters celebrate: No more Israel; kill those motherf***ers — Obama supporters out celebrating his win on election night gathered on State Street Tuesday evening. I asked one man why he was celebrating Obama, and what that meant to him. He said, “It really means to me …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Atlas Shrugs, Pirate's Cove and Jihad Watch

Jon Ward / The Huffington Post:

Republican Reckoning Begins After Revealing Defeat … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Barack Obama , Mitt Romney, Elections 2012, Natural Disasters, Republican Party, Video, Ground Game, Turnout, Politics News — BOSTON — Republican Party leaders on Wednesday began picking …

Discussion: The Confluence, The American Conservative, Brad DeLong, Mother Jones, The Mahablog, New York Times, Hot Air and RedState

New York Times:

Little to Show for Cash Flood by Big Donors — At the private air terminal at Logan Airport in Boston early Wednesday, men in unwrinkled suits sank into plush leather chairs as they waited to board Gulfstream jets, trading consolations over Mitt Romney's loss the day before.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Progressive Change … and First Read

Jonathan Easley / Ballot Box:

Axelrod: Talk of mandate ‘foolish, generally untrue’ — Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod downplayed talk of an election mandate on the “fiscal cliff” on Thursday. — Axelrod said presidents always talk after an election about a mandate, but he called such talk “foolish.”

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Weasel Zippers

Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Amid new challenges, Boehner stresses unity at leadership table

Discussion: Politico

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Sheldon Adelson's Paper Runs Headline “America Chose Socialism” — The headline runs over an analysis piece in the billionaire's Israeli paper, Israel Today.

Michael Isikoff / Open Channel:

Karl Rove's election nightmare: Super PAC's spending was nearly for naught — Karl Rove was the political genius of the George W. Bush era — the architect of the last Republican president's two electoral victories. But this week, he may have had the worst election night of anybody in American politics.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Sunlight Foundation …, Election 2012 and msnbc.com

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

A Silver Lining and a Conundrum [Updated] — I can see only one good outcome from yesterday's election: the fact that Barack Obama will be the president who inherits the mess left by Barack Obama. The economy is in awful shape; it won't get much better given Obama's policies, and may get worse.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative and Instagram Blog

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Looking at the national exit poll

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler, Washington Monthly, iOwnTheWorld.com and National Review

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Life after defeat for Mitt Romney: Public praise, private questions — BOSTON — Mitt Romney began his retreat from public life Wednesday at a private breakfast gathering with a couple hundred of his most loyal and affluent campaign benefactors. The former Massachusetts governor …

Discussion: Wonkblog and New York Magazine

Michael Sneed / Chicago Sun Times:

Sneed exclusive: Jesse Jackson Jr. in plea deal talks with feds: sources — Sneed has learned U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who handily won re-election Tuesday despite a lengthy stay at Mayo Clinic for depression and bipolar disorder, is in the midst of plea discussions with the feds probing his alleged misuse of campaign funds.

Discussion: The Hill, CBS Chicago and Outside the Beltway