It was a tense Election Night as results from every swing state were too close to call until around 10pm EST. By then, polls has closed across most of the country, and election officials were scrambling to count every ballot.
But President Obama's victory was inexorable, as one-by-one, each swing state was called in his favor by the major networks.
Michigan was expected, and the first to be called. While the Romney team felt they had a shot in Pennsylvania, that proved to be wrong fairly early in the night.
Once New Hampshire turned blue, the night started looking very bad for the Republicans.
Florida and Virginia were too close to call for hours, as polls in the rest of the country closed.
Then Obama picked up Wisconsin and Iowa, and Obama led in the count in Ohio by a single point.
The only bright spot of the night for Romney was North Carolina, which flipped back and forth between the two candidates during the vote count, finally settling on Romney, giving him his only victory of the night.
As Romney settled into 206 electoral votes, Obama continued to rack them up.
It was all over when he took Ohio, just after 11pm EST. The networks announced it by calling the election for Obama, as Ohio's 18 electoral votes gave him an insurmountable lead in the Electoral College.
As the celebrations in Chicago at Obama campaign headquarters continued, results came in from Colorado, Nevada and Virginia, all Obama victories.
Today, the only state that still remains undecided is Florida, as poll workers still struggle to count each ballot the morning after a decided election.
The count may end up close enough to trigger an automatic recount, which could mean days or weeks before the final tally in Florida is known.
While that won't affect the outcome of the presidential election, it will influence the final Electoral College tallies, and the difference between taking a single swing state and taking two might be profound on Republican egos. This morning, the Electoral College count stands at 303 for Obama, 206 for Romney.
While Romney led in early totals of the popular vote, that didn't account for the massive number of Democratic votes waiting on the West Coast, and as polls closed in California and Washington, Obama surged ahead.
Perhaps the greatest winners in this election were the pollsters, who, for the most part, were spot-on with their predictions. Taken in aggregate, the polls correctly predicted both the popular vote and the results in every swing state (barring a flip in Florida, which is trending blue in the current count).
But pundits may need to reexamine their methods, as the "too close to call" election mantra of the cable news talking heads proved to be political bluster. There was no horserace here. Obama led in Electoral College estimates the entire campaign, and he won by a confortable margin.
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