4 more years - thoughts after a long election cycle

I usually post mainly about Japan and stuff going on here, but what with it being just hours after Obama was re-elected I thought I'd post a few reflections on his win and the election in general. I know this isn't so much a politics blog, so I'll keep it simple.

My thoughts:

1. First of all, I'll say I think it should be a miracle that Obama won. Traditionally presidents during times of economic downturns have a hard time getting a second term.
2. When I said it should be a miracle I think Obama had an easy time, and most of it was the Republican party shooting itself in the foot. First they allowed the tea party to invade party rhetoric enough to drive some people away and take the focus off of issues worth arguing about. Second, they ran one of the nastiest primaries in history, giving the Democrats tons of ammunition to use against them. Want to find an anti-Romney quote? Just do a search for stuff said around the primary and I'm sure Gingrich said something nasty you can use.
3. This election started essentially halfway through Obama's 1st term, as it always does. This leads to voter fatigue but also (more importantly) diverts presidents from the task of, you know, running a country.
4. And finally: the cost of the damn election - which came to around $6 billion dollars. Yes, that's billion. Call me crazy, but wouldn't it be a better idea to use that money on making the country better? Say, hire a shitload of teachers, cops, or even by just randomly tossing bags of cash out of windows for people to fight over? OK the last idea is a bad one, but you get the idea. How about instead of an endless expensive election that can only lead to more corruption and backdoor dealings we run a one month election that involves mainly televised debates and equal air time for making policy speeches?

OK, I know I'm being naive. Oh well. End of rant for now.