… Obama’s campaign, the most data-driven in the history of American politics, tweaked the electorate in enough places and enough constituencies to eke out victories in virtually every battleground state that had looked competitive on the eve of the election.
Nothing was inevitable about the president’s victory. But against the obstacles in Obama’s path was a belief in Chicago in the glacial power of demographic change. If not exactly a secret weapon, it was an underappreciated asset, and its inexorable quality was seemingly underestimated by Romney’s campaign and by many Republican strategists. [cont.]
Dan Balz, Washington Post