Women voters proved that politicians cannot threaten their rights with impunity. We don’t yet know the precise influence that issues like equal-pay legislation, abortion, and birth control had on the electorate. Women are more liberal than men on a whole range of issues, including the strength of the safety net, and would likely have broken for Obama even if reproductive rights had played less of a role in the race.

Michelle Goldberg writes that the influence women exercised on this year’s results goes beyond electing female representation. 

I will not fall off the map.

Mitt Romney is mulling his post-election options.

Republicans, you have a problem:

In Iowa, the 2008 gender gap was 5 points. This year it was 15. Ohio swung from a 2-point gender gap in 2008 to 10 points in 2012. Virginia saw a 5-point swing, from 2 points in ’08 to 7 this year. Florida went from a 1-point gender gap to a 7-point gap in 2012. The only swing state that didn’t see a significant gender gap this time around was Colorado.

The media treated the “War on Women” as being primarily about reproductive issues, but not so the Obama campaign. Team Obama knew that the issue that women cared about the most was the economy, and reminded women constantly that the hostility the GOP shows toward the government could leave single women in a perilous situation. Republicans ridiculed “The Life of Julia,” but it was a brilliant campaign outreach tactic that showed how a Romney administration would affect women in a way that left nothing to the imagination.

Adding to the alienation of women voters this year were deeply troubling comments from GOP Senate candidates about rape, a tirade by Rush Limbaugh calling a woman a slut for testifying about the availability of birth control, and so on. Yes, Bill Maher is a pig and says terrible things about women too, but voters don’t view him as a leader in the Democratic Party in the same way Limbaugh is viewed in the GOP.  Also unhelpful to the GOP cause is the constant insistence that there is no wage discrimination against women—a stance that led to the mocking of the Lily Ledbetter Act, a milquetoast measure protecting women from salary discrimination that any decent person should support.

David Frum’s new Newsweek eBook, “Why Romney Lost,” is out today for $3.99. It looks like a nice deep dive into what, exactly, happened to the GOP these past few months—and how Republicans can recover by evolving into a party more fit for the 21st century.

Why Romney Lost is a forthright analysis that offers a bold, hopeful plan for Republican success in the years ahead. David Frum urges a Republican party that is culturally modern, economically inclusive, and environmentally responsible - a party that can meet the challenges of the Obama years and lead a diverse America to a new age of freedom and prosperity.

[Get it on Amazon / Get it on iBooks]

Also, there’s this. David Frum’s GOP memo (he a former Bush speechwriter and now blogger) to the GOP will be up on the site tomorrow.

When you have divided the world into two categories - freedom or tyranny - and there is no ground whatever between them, you are not only among the least intelligent commentators out there; you also have to be completely fanatical even in the face of popular repudiation.

Andrew Sullivan watched Fox News on election night.

Porn Star James Deen is none-too-happy with the measure requiring porn stars wear condoms.

Here’s James:

We’re dealing with an 87 percent safety rate with a condom. You also have to remember, adult films are not real sex. It’s entertainment. So just because we’re engaging in physical sex doesn’t mean it is normal sex. We’re going to be—to be crude, you have women being pounded by large or above-average-size penises for a nonstandard amount of time. For hours. From anywhere from 30 minutes to up to three hours or more. So now you add latex into that, the ultimate probability of friction burn, vaginal and anal tears, and things like that. And when you’re dealing with something with an 87 percent safety rate, you’re going to now have a higher probability of transmitting any sort of STD or STI because you now have more issues in addition to that.

Check out the James Deen Q&A.

Javelin, Jockey details, all posts, discontinue.

A little after Mitt Romney gave his concession speech late Tuesday night, and after he and Ann were safely tucked into bed, the Secret Service said goodnight to the former presidential candidate with these six words. 

We’re awake, and the momentum is ours. We have more work to do to reach our full potential. Given Election Day’s results, our full potential is massive and unimaginably transformative. When Latinos vote, all Americans win, even the people who think voting could never play a role in their lives. So let’s not wait four years to get to work again. We’re awake. Let’s keep going now.

America Ferrera says its mañana in America. 

It’s 2012. The Apple mentality is taking over. The GOP’s outdated social views make it the equivalent of a PC.

Missy Tranter, a 24-year-old Washington, D.C., resident raised in a Republican family, tells us how the GOP’s archaic social mores are the reason the party lost her vote, along with those of thousands of others.