Editor's note: Watch Anderson Cooper on AC360 at 8 and 10 p.m. ET for a comprehensive analysis of the race, a break down of the other key contests and initiatives around the country, and a look at the challenges ahead for President Obama.
Two days before Election Day, Vice President Joe Biden paid a visit to foot soldiers serving on the front lines of the 2012 campaign: suburban Colorado. Early voting had been under way in the Western battleground for weeks; the Obama team was counting on a volunteer army to deliver the state.
The polls in the race's final weeks had careened back and forth between razor-thin Obama and Romney leads. But Biden told the volunteers he wasn't worried - and they were the reason: "The ground operation which you guys represent is the best in the history of presidential politics."
"I'm telling you, it's this way in Virginia, it's this way in Florida. ... And I think that the one thing that is going to fundamentally make the difference is you guys - for real," Biden said. "I'm not just trying to be nice. I really genuinely believe that's the deal."
Republicans, surveying the very same landscape at the very same time, sounded a much more skeptical note.