the National Women's Law Center, expressed worries about Scalia's oversight of the Labor Department's interpretation and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.

"Eugene Scalia is charged with protecting working people—yet in his career he has shown no interest in upholding, much less advancing, their rights," said Martin. "For decades he has enabled employers to escape responsibility for protecting workers from discrimination—including sexual harassment, race discrimination, and disability discrimination. He has shown persistent hostility to the worker and consumer protections the Department of Labor is charged to uphold."and other key battlegrounds, the evidence shows the president losing, not gaining, ground with this badly battered segment of the population. Among white voters overall—still 72 percent of total ballots, down from 74 percent in 2008—Obama lost to Mitt Romney in a devastating landslide, 59 percent to 39 percent. Four years ago, he also lost the white vote, but by a far more modest margin of 12 percentage points rather than the 20-point blowout this year. Compared to his Election Day performance in 2008, Obama lost more than 7 million white votes.

How, then, did the president manage to prevail over a confident, well-funded, united opposition at a time of economic anxiety and 7.9 percent unemployment?

He and his supporters succeeded in discouraging and disillusioning the Republican and independent voters