No matter what happens -- even a 14-point Republican victory -- the media geniuses will always find a way to spin it as bad news for conservatives:

With time and money on their sides, though, we can expect that Obama and other Democratic leaders will be look to make 2012 the year that the Solid South is broken once and for all. Certainly with an incumbent president and demographic trends continuing to work, Democrats could cement gains in Virginia and Florida and perhaps even North Carolina. . . .
With an invigorated Democratic effort and Libertarians drawing better than 3 percent in key races, it wouldn't take long for the rest of the South to turn blue.

Somehow these geniuses can't accept the simple and obvious explanation that nominating a bald, grumpy, old guy for president is bad politics. No, the Big Picture must be something nuanced and complex, so that only geniuses can explain it.

As I've said before: Don't overthink it. At some basic level, politics is about popularity. When the other guys nominate Will Smith and you nominate Mister Magoo, no grand ideological theory or demographic trend is necessary to explain why you got your ass kicked.

(Cross-posted at The Other McCain.)