Fascinating series of articles about how the hapless Dems finally learned to put those fancy social science degrees and computer programming skills to the practical business of winning elections.

Although the author doesn't hammer this point home, it's clear that the anti-science bent of the current Republican party has come home to roost in a big way.

I finally had an opportunity to examine why the Republicans kept the House of Representatives -- that's pretty much due to gerrymandering.

Because more people voted Dem in this election than Republican.These Slate articles demonstrate how software and the Internet can help a political campaign tremendously.

 It's not just software... it's the software-making PROCESS.  For instance, it looks like they do a lot of A-B testing now.  They expect to iterate quickly.  They segment their market into the various slices of the bell curve (e.g. your millionth user is a different person than your 10 millionth or 100 millionth user).  The process is the hardest thing to convey to others.

That's a great point. Process is learned slowly over time.

If they begin now, maybe the Republicans can have a competitive process for 2016.

Maybe.

 It's been a remarkable reversal; in the 1980s, the Democrats were the Keystone Kops of campaigning.  Now the vaunted Republican election machine has conked out.  I have to agree with troutgirl; Lee Atwater and 80s Republicans are rolling over in their graves right now.

The Republicans were convinced that Obama could never win in such a soft economy:

http://www.businessinsider.com/romney-gop-republicans-2012-11

Latino and youth voters were up a point each from 2008 to 2012:

http://www.businessinsider.com/exit-polls-election-obama-vs-romney-youth-latino-black-catholic-sampling-2012-11

Those extra voters made the difference.