Predicting presidential elections and other things
It was "The economy stupid", but that the US economy was recovering too well for voters to fire Obama, and not to fire him because of the dismal recovery. (Roosevelt managed reelection with a similarly dismal economic performance.)
IMO (not Dr. Fair's) if the presidential election had been held in 2010 or was to be held in 2014, the outcome would be completely different. The economy has been in a historically muted recovery, but still doing well enough that a few % of voters didn't want to rock the boat.
Coupled with a Republican "GOTV" strategy that imploded on election day. This wasn't a rejection of conservative principles (Mitt Romney? Conservative?) or affirmation of nanny liberalism. People "vote their wallets" and for the first time in a few years their wallets weren't completely empty back in November. That's all this was. If it's any consolation, Obama is tracking Bush #43's second term approval ratings pretty closely. And we know what happened in 2006 and 2008.
And face it, a majority of the low info Obama voters haven't been impacted by the sour economy.