It wasn’t even close. That’s the unexpected result of the November 6 election. And President Obama and his supporters must wrap their heads around this new reality—just as their Republican rivals are going to have to adjust to it.

After a very long, very hard campaign that began the night of the 2010 “Republican wave” election, a campaign defined by unprecedented spending and take-no-prisoners debate strategies,  Barack Obama was re-elected president . And he did so with an ease that allowed him to claim what even his supporters dared not imagine until a little after 11 pm on the night of his last election:  a credible, national win.