Mark Shea has been a voice of Catholic sanity throughout the campaign season — and perennially, really. He notes that no, third-party contenders like Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Constitution Party’s Virgil Goode did not cost Romney the election: “Fun Fact: So far each state reporting an Obama victory won it with at least 50% of the vote. Which means all those people who voted 3rd party instead of Romney had nothing to do with Obama winning re-election.”

One of the richer ironies of the season, by the way, has been watching Republican hacks who consider themselves “social conservatives” insist that a protest vote for Johnson in particular is a violation of right-wing principle; a true social conservative has only one, obvious choice: Mitt Romney, the guy who ran to the left of Ted Kennedy on social issues when it suited his purposes. Depending on the day of the week, Mitt could make Gary Johnson seem like Randall Terry by comparison.