Karl Rove. “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money” – tweet from Donald Trump, who should know a stumble when he sees one (but doesn’t). Rove’s political groups gave $127 million to Romney and $10 million to defeat Sherrod Brown in Ohio, where Rove played a particularly seedy role – or roles – as an “outside” fundraiser, a political insider and a Fox News commentator. When the network declared Ohio for Obama, Rove had a conniption and then an on-air fight with the Fox (!) staff. Results: Rove’s groups lost one of one presidential, 10 of 12 senate, and four of nine house races. Common Ground. Amid all the talk of bipartisanship, consider this: In Obama’s first term, Congressional Republicans tried to kill 70 percent of all bills before a vote and made more filibusters than had been made over six decades after WWII – an era that included intense opposition to civil rights.

Return on Investment. Sheldon Adelson was the “biggest single donor in political history” and Linda McMahon spent $97 million of her own money on two senate seats in two years: ROI 0%.

Graciousness. “What happened? A political (sic) narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform. Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division” (Mary Matalin).