Mitt Romney

AS NEW JERSEY settles into the "After Sandy" era, Gov. Chris Christie has put his trademark fleece jacket back in the closet. For the last two weeks, Christie's been all over the state and in national headlines, as he toured every corner of New Jersey touched by Hurricane Sandy. His Halloween tour with President Obama of Brigantine, Atlantic County, and his praise of the president's efforts sparked debate in conservative circles, with many wondering whether Christie torpedoed any chances Mitt Romney had to win last week's election.

By Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty and Nelson W. Cunningham With the election over, the approaching fiscal cliff must be confronted in a way that solves our long-term deficit without strangling our nascent recovery. In their gracious speeches after the election, Mitt Romney and President Obama called on Washington to pull together. Both men should rise to the moment. Obama should ask Romney to present a bipartisan plan to solve the deficit in the long term while promoting growth in the short term.

WASHINGTON - In the final days of the presidential campaign, you saw them everywhere. Sen. Pat Toomey stood on stage with Mitt Romney at a massive Bucks County rally last Sunday. U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, a Democrat from Montgomery County, zipped across the region for news conferences to combat the Republicans' late Keystone State offensive. Toomey and Schwartz were among Romney's and President Obama's most prominent surrogates in Pennsylvania, but their positions as leading advocates didn't end with the election.

RE: "LESSON of Obama's re-election" (Christine Flowers column, Nov. 9). I find it appalling that you invoke the "Civil War" when it comes to your "enmity. " Your enmity should be directed at the mountain of misinformation some conservative operatives put out there. Your enmity should be directed at Mitt and his blatant pandering and pretentious platform. Your enmity should be at the plethora of frivolous news stories such as "birtherism" and the "Benghazi conspiracy" that only amounted to smoke and mirrors against the real issues America faces.

"In the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together: reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil. " - President Barack Obama, on the night of his reelection. "Mr. President, this is your moment. We're ready to be led - not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. " - House Speaker John A. Boehner, on the fiscal crisis.

President Obama may have scored a narrow victory Tuesday night, barely winning 50 percent of the popular vote. Yet his squeaker of a triumph not only represents a bigger loss for the Party of Lincoln, but also offers a critically important lesson. Republicans and their standard bearer, Mitt Romney, were confident of consigning Obama to the same ash heap as the failed Jimmy Carter presidency. But Election Day hit them like a ton of bricks. Extending the tragic reversal of their three landslides in the 1980s, the GOP failed for the fifth time in six presidential elections to capture the vote of the people.

OK, so now what happens? We'll soon learn whether President Obama's resounding Electoral College victory buys him some good will on Capitol Hill - or whether he's destined to endure more gridlock, thanks to an election that once again revealed an ideologically fractured nation. On the one hand, Republicans should be suitably humbled by what occurred on Tuesday night. Obama became only the second Democrat in history (joining Franklin D. Roosevelt) to win two presidential races with more than 50 percent of the popular vote.

Since it's football season, words a coach might say to his team after a hard win might be what President Obama needs to hear after his reelection: It's OK to celebrate, but don't lose sight of the challenges ahead. Up next is tackling the so-called fiscal cliff, which is the combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that will automatically begin unless Congress and the president can agree on how to reduce the deficit. They took a time-out for the elections; now it's time to resume negotiations.

With the presidential election over, the United States can finally take a breather from campaign politics. But an uncomfortable question lingers: How can the world's most powerful country and oldest continuous democracy exhibit political discourse more reminiscent of a failed African state? Maybe that's an overly harsh assessment of Africa's nascent democracies. If you think I exaggerate, you have not been paying close attention. The pandering to extremists, rejection of science, outright lies, and evasion of real issues that characterized the election cycle set a new low for democratic politics.

SUSAN MANION wasn't sure how she would vote in Tuesday's presidential election until she watched the second debate. "Mitt Romney's recent 'binders full of women' remark I found to be very insulting," the Bordentown City, N.J., resident said, referring to the Republican candidate's comments about appointing women while he served as governor of Massachusetts. "That remark totally turned me off him . . . I feel like Obama is more pro-choice. He supports career women. " Manion, who is in her 50s, is a registered Republican who voted for President Obama on Tuesday and in 2008.