The Reality is Romney Lost By Only 334,008 Votes. That's All That's Needed For 2016

Forget all the hubris coming from the left, forget all the rubbish about the GOP is doomed because minorities/demographics are moving against them. Forget too the nonsense that the GOP was "trounced" and that unless they do something radical they will go the way of the Whigs.

Forget too that the Obama victory was so comprehensive that he has a massive mandate for any social and economic agenda he wants the and Republicans had just better get out of the way.

Here is the truth of the matter.

President Obama won in the Electoral College, which is the only place it counts, by 332 to 206. Thus Romney came up 64 EC votes short (or 63 as a tie would have been as good as 270 as the House would have voted him in).

Forget the popular vote margin nation wide (although it is instructive to note, in the face of all the leftist hubris, the substantial drop in President Obama's support from 2008-so much for the inexorable movement of voters to the left). 

Forget too the huge margins run in for the Dem's in e.g. New York and California and for the GOP across the South. All that mattered was the popular vote margins in the four swing states whose Electoral College votes decided the election.
(all figures taken from Politico as of today AT THIS LINK)

Florida;             29 EC votes won by   73,596  0.9%

Virginia             13 EC votes won by 115,910   3.0%

Ohio                 18 EC votes  won by 103,481  1.9%

New Hampshire  4 EC votes won by   40,659   5.8%

Total; 4 swing states EC votes=64 plus 206 won by Romney gives the required 270.

Total popular vote margin across the 4 swing states to President Obama 334,008

That's it, 334k popular votes were all that was required, more or less as the finals are still to be tabulated.

This is not the place to discuss what would have happened if e.g. the Romney campaign had not snubbed Sarah Palin, or had chosen a different VP running mate for Romney. 

What can be stated though is that the current leftist/media meme is rubbish and that, with the right candidate the GOP has every chance of overcoming these relatively tiny margins in these four states in 2016 (which are for three of them not particularly Hispanic, another meme shot down, which is not to say of course that there shouldn't be a major and genuine outreach to that community).