Thanks to David Petraeus’s adultery and the so-called “fiscal cliff,” it’s almost possible to forget that there was a presidential election just a week ago. (And God knows the Republicans would like to!) But before the campaign disappears into the haze of social life in Tampa and tax reform proposals in Washington, here are four under-the-radar lessons from President Obama’s successful re-election bid.

Even in national races, politics is still local.

While Mitt Romney ran a national campaign — emphasizing the economy and the unemployment rate to voters in Reno, Racine and Raleigh alike — the White House ran a much more regionalized effort. If you lived in Northern Virginia, the president’s pitch focused on abortion and contraception. If you lived in Ohio, the race was a referendum on outsourcing and the auto bailout. If you watched Spanish-language television in Colorado or Nevada, the campaign was all about the president’s backdoor implementation of the DREAM Act.