November 07, 2012   By Andy Hirsch  LEWISBURG, Pa. — With the
2012 election behind us, Bucknell political science professors
break down the results and explain where the country goes from
here.  Question: What surprised you the most about how this
election played out?  Answer from Chris Ellis, assistant
professor of political science: One of the more important things
about the night is that there really were no big surprises.
Political scientists predicted a narrow Obama victory based on
very fundamental factors — election-year economic growth,
whether the incumbent is running again, the approval rating of
the President. And polls for about the past month have been
predicting the same result.  This tells us two things: First, it
provides a useful reminder that the more exotic explanations
that pundits often spend the most time talking about as being
important to election outcomes — debates, campaign strategies,
super PACs, the candidates' races or religions, gaffes made on
the campaign trail — all of those th