In the run-up to election day, mainstream media pundit and mainstream media fretted about various theories about how the election could be stolen from Barack Obama. One of the most common fears was a related to a lurking racism that was not showing up in the polls.

But The Politico's Joe Mathews did his homework, and posted his findings Tuesday morning.

Turns out it wasn't racism that turned voters off to Tom Bradley's 1982 campaign for California governor...it was guns.