For those who put stock in the pre-election polls, the outcome was no surprise. Barack Obama was expected to win the presidency, and he did. The surprises rolled in after the election, as we got a clearer picture of what happened, which groups voted which way, and where we head from here.

According to exit polls, Obama won a majority of voters who earn more than $100,000 per year — despite his promise to raise taxes on high-income Americans. Obama originally put the cutoff at $250,000, insisting that only those who earned that much annually would see their taxes increased. Then he dropped it to $200,000. A few weeks ago, running mate Joseph Biden put the figure at $150,000. Where it winds up is anyone's guess. Still, that didn't hurt Obama with those who may have to pay up. They voted for "change," and when this is over, that may be all they have left.

Consider also that, according to the same polls, Obama won the support of more than 70 percent of Jewish voters — despite the fact that some in the Jewish community had raised concerns about the company Obama keeps. That includes his association with Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, an acquaintance of Obama's who has been a fierce critic of Israel and who some claimed served as a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was a U.S.-designated terror group. Khalidi denies those reports. Either Jewish voters didn't know about the relationship, or they didn't care.

Just as counter-intuitive was the fact that nearly two-thirds of Latinos supported Obama, compared with only 30 percent for John McCain. This occurred despite the fact that immigration is often cited as a top issue for Hispanics, and neither Obama nor John McCain had much to say about it in this election. In fact, last week, during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Obama was asked to list his top priorities if elected. Immigration wasn't on the list. The issue may not be on the tip of his tongue, but we hope it's somewhere on his radar screen. Otherwise, it could be a long four years for Obama's Latino supporters.

Here in California, it will also be a long time before the opponents of Proposition 8 get over the fact that, in this blue state where so many liberal voters flocked to the polls to help elect the nation's first African-American president, many of those same voters also, presumably, voted to support the gay marriage ban. Seventy percent of African-American voters and slightly more than half of Latino voters supported Proposition 8. So, in a historic election that some people say was about expanding opportunity and freedom, that didn't include the opportunity for gays and lesbians to marry. The ballot initiative wasn't complicated, but the world sure is a complicated place.

All in all, this was an election with more than its share of contradictions and complexities. And why not? Those are qualities Americans usually have in large supply.

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