There was a lot of money spent on this election, and yet the people who spent the most money did not necessarily succeed.  I think this should be a lesson to us that sometimes you cannot buy votes, no matter how hard you try.

I believe that specific gender and minority groups affected the election more than special interest groups. Romney's only strength was in older white males, while Obama strongly carried Hispanics, African Americans, women and younger voters.

Interest groups affect every election.  You can argue that they are coming to have more power because they are allowed to spend as much money as they like under the Citizens United decision.  It seems plausible that interest groups will increase their power because of the fact that they are able to spend so much money.