Mitt Was "Shellshocked"

Sorry for the delay this morning, I was on Bill Press's radio show. Last night, I was on with Ed Schulz, and he mentioned this piece to me, which I had not seen, from CBS.com about the Romneys' reaction to the results:

But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.

After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.

"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."

They just couldn't believe they had been so wrong. And maybe they weren't: There was Karl Rove on Fox saying Ohio wasn't settled, so campaign aides decided to wait. They didn't want to have to withdraw their concession, like Al Gore did in 2000, and they thought maybe the suburbs of Columbus and Cincinnati, which hadn't been reported, could make a difference.

Later on, it quotes an aide saying Romney was "shellshocked."

Um. WHAT?!?

They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night? Who are these people? What were they drinking and smoking? Look, I understand the bubble. I understand seeing those big crowds, which he certainly did have, and thinking you've got a great shot.

But a campaign has to keep itself connected to reality, and the reality was always, always, always that the electoral math was tough for Romney. The turnout of D+6 was surprising to most people--to me, even, as I've said. But the electoral college was Romney's Berlin Wall that it was always going to be hard to scale. If you lost purchase on that basic fact, you were in your own little fantasy kingdom (or Rove's and Morris's).

And have you read about this ORCA nightmare? Ridiculous.

I wrote Wednesday that I felt some sympathy for Romney on a human level. But having read these two pieces I'm back to feeling the normal healthy contempt for the guy. Good riddance, you dope. Please just stay home now. Or homes.