COLUMN: 10 lessons of 2012 presidential election

The 2012 elections surprised both sides and hit a reset button on the Obama administration -- and American politics. Here are 10 conclusions:

1. So much for Citizens United destroying the fabric of America with big bucks automatically meaning victory.

2. Republican Party, you DID build that: From its wishful-thinking alternate reality; to its exiling and dissing of moderates who then voted for Barack Obama in huge numbers; to its polarizing talk show hosts turning off key demographic groups; to its cherry-picking partisan pollsters and voter suppression efforts that brought indignant targeted voters out to vote -- the GOP literally gave this election away.

The National Journal's Charlie Cook writes about GOP primaries: "It would be easy to just blame Romney, but when he finally got around to being himself, in the first debate, his numbers moved up.... Instead, Republicans should be asking themselves about their own party and how they took a very smart and rational guy and made him turn into a pretzel to win the nomination--a contortion that left him unable to straighten himself out in time to win in November."

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3. The center lives: Losers included many high profile, outspoken, media-hungry Tea Party/Talk Radio Political Culture candidates that moderate voters couldn't stand.

5. Serious analysts not political entertainers are the ones to watch for REAL predictions. The accuracy of New York Times' Nate Silver, the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato, and San Diego political scientist Samuel Popkin again demonstrated why they're the best in the business. Before the vote, Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan announced that "all the vibrations were right" for a Romney victory. She must have been feeling the vibrations from her TV tuned to "Fox & Friends."

6. Dick Morris MUST have something bad on Rupert Murdoch. What else can explain him continuing to be paid to make predictions so breathtakingly wrong that he further damages the Fox News brand?

7. Karl Rove Political Genius, Buh-Bye: Will Congress pass a special law to protect billionaires from Karl Rove? His costly PAC's efforts flopped, his on-the-air Fox News election night melt-down gave him an enduring image as a hack.

8. Telling post-election signs. Barack Obama teared-up thanking his young campaign workers. Mitt Romney's campaign staffers on election night found their campaign credit cards were turned off when they tried to pay for taxis taken home.

9. Big Labor is back and battling. No longer can you joke that you couldn't even start a labor union in a maternity ward.

10. Truth matters. Future campaigns will note that Mitt Romney's stunning discarding of past positions and his campaign's running of proven, false assertions may have backfired.