What is wrong with these people?

DENVER, Colo — “Welcome to Hell!”

The shout broke a brief quiet inside a lounge of Denver’s Sports Authority Field, where the Colorado GOP held its election-night watch party. Fox News had just officially announced that Obama won Ohio, and with it the nation. Karl Rove was another thing, but it was a short moment of quiet, as supporters here processed the fact that not only had the president won the race, but after millions of dollars of advertising and weekly traffic jams from the candidates’ nonstop visits, Colorado ultimately did not matter in the final count.

“What is wrong with America?” one supporter murmured under his breath.

Debbie Cohen, 56, wept.

“I am deeply, deeply distressed. I have two grandbabies, and I look at this and I know there is no turning back,” she said, through tears. “How can America pick a man like that? I have been through many, many elections, but I have never known the desperation that I know now. I feel devastated. I feel hopeless.”

Cohen, a teacher, said she’ll probably feel better tomorrow, but for now, she needs to grieve.

“I don’t know where to go, except on my knees to God,” she said.