Guy Benson, political editor of Townhall.com, spoke recently at a Centennial Institute event in Lakewood, Colo., and gave a stark post-mortem on the 2012 presidential election.

Democrats and their allies may have underestimated the tenacity of U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, the Republican incumbent who won re-electionTuesday to represent Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District.

Stanley Kurtz, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has written a book, “Spreading the Wealth,” about Pres. Obama’s desire to remake the political structures of metropolitan areas, to shore up urban political and union machines with suburban tax dollars.

“Some Democrats there [in Boulder] came out in protest of me because I guess the pro-war, anti-marijuana college Democrats there think I’m taking votes away from Obama,” said Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. “I view it as a compliment.”

“I don’t appreciate [Pres.] Obama’s war on women and I feel Mitt [Romney] knows what women need and how to bring the country forward and include us,” said Lindsey, 23, who may not fit the demographic stereotype of a registered Republican in Colorado.

R Block Party co-founders and conservative activists Lori Horn and Nikki Mata spoke Tuesday of the increased enthusiasm they’ve seen in Republican circles leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

Wednesday night at Red Rocks, at a joint appearance with running mate Paul Ryan, Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney alluded to the importance of Colorado as a swing state, telling the crowd of 10,000, “I think the people of Colorado are going to get us all the way there. What do you think?”

Three weeks after hosting the debate that turned the presidential race upside down, Colorado will again see Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Pres. Barack Obama in the Denver metro area.

“Everything out of Barack Obama’s mouth is like music to me, I liken it to a violin,” said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate. “It’s just that the words don’t match up with the reality at all, in any way, whatsoever.”

As it happens, Pres. Obama didn’t need anybody’s help at the presidential debate to turn a town-hall question about equal pay for women into a discussion about contraception.