President Obama's big victory

>>> welcome back to "the ed show." last night was clearly an historic victory for president obama . he is only the second democrat from world war ii to win a second full term and he did it against great odds. the inside story is remarkable. jim messina , who's the mastermind, jim messina , the president's campaign manager , met with president obama six months ago to unveil a very unique strategy, according to the " wall street journal ." the plan was to spend heavily, early, to define mitt romney early in the battleground states . romney would be busy trying to capture the republican nomination and would not be able to have the money to defend himself. the plan was surgical and methodical and it resonated, as an accurate portrait of a corporate raider . romney 's 47% remark surfaced months later and solidified this image of romney and showed is us how he viewed the electorate. let's turn to john nichols , washington correspondent for "the nation" magazine, and author of the book "uprising." john, great to have you with us tonight and great work last night in toledo , ohio . that had to be pretty emotional. all those workers knowing that they were going to get a successful conclusion. the obama campaign kept the romney campaign off balance for nearly the entire stretch of this campaign, or am i wrong on that?

>> i think it is true, although, obviously, we had that first debate. and that was a point that was offplan, by any measure. because, remember, going into that first debate, everyone was talking about whether barack obama was going to close the deal that night. that he would, you know, sort of wipe mitt romney out. romney , in that first debate, brought himself up to credibility, and that's where the obama campaign really had to go into full force . and i have to emphasize, what i saw last night, as well as what i saw traveling around the country over the few weeks before the campaign, was the evidence of something very significant, when you talk about spending early, and investing early, that investment was not merely in tv ads, ed. it was in building an infrastructure. and in building a relationship, working with trade unions in places like toledo , and flynt, and janesville, wisconsin , and that paid off.

>> the obama campaign , i think, helped wake up people about mitt romney . for instance, in shreveport, illinois, the republican congressman, bobby shilling was defeated. and we saw the romney economic model on full display and it was rejected last night. i mean, how much did that kind of a story and the outsourcing play into the decisions last night?

>> it was huge. ed, you know, some of the people who won last night, not just president obama , but as you move down the ballot, were people who were all in for some of these great struggles of 2011 and 2012 . tammy baldwin in wisconsin was in the capital, with the protesters. sherrod brown , in ohio , turned his campaign over to the movement in that state to overturn their anti- labor law . and so, you really saw something begin a very long time ago. and there were a lot of people who were hard-pressed, who got engaged politically, in defense of their own labor rights a year and a half ago, and transitioned that into this campaign. now, the interesting thing that happened, in this campaign, is that mitt romney showed himself to be precisely the sort of person that they had been fighting. someone who was clearly committed to attacking unions, but also who was willing to say and do anything to win. and i cannot emphasize to you, not just in ohio , but in other states across the great industrial heartland, romney 's comments saying that jeep was going to close and move to china, that scared is people?

>> you heard that a lot in toledo last night?

>> and it also woke a lot of people up. not just in toledo . in toledo , yes, ed, but also up in detroit. i heard it over in wisconsin . i think it's very important to realize, a lot of their lives came back and haunted them last night. remember that at the republican convention , paul ryan talked about or tried to blame president obama for the closing of the gm plant in st night, janesville vo ted for obama and biden over their own hometown candidate.

>> isn't that something?

>> and the surrounding county voted 60% for obama and biden.

>> john nichols , great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much.

>>> did the war on women cost the gop the election? president of the national organization for women , terry o'neill, weighs in on that next.

>>> then, ballots and bigotry. find out what the republicans need to understand if they want to take back the white house some day. the new political reality and americans' demographics,