Sorry. I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one.
We agree on almost everything else, so I hope that's OK with you.
The media smear didn't lose it for Moore. He did. NO Republican candidate should have lost this seat.
We're going to disagree. The media smear had the NRSC pull support from Moore. That means money that should have been available to the candidate was not forthcoming. At that point, Moore wasn't a candidate to the GOPe. They got what they want. Absolution from blame and pulled defeat from the jaws of victory. Now they have an excuse to not accomplish anything, and for the Trump fans out there, he will be hobbled by the Congress, and they will be perfectly fine with that, as a rule. The Uniparty has been preserved, and the lagoon is deeper than ever in the swamp at Foggy Bottoms.
I do not believe the accusers: they have no credibility with me--not after 40 years. Not after the allegations of illegal behaviour were shown to be deeply flawed from details that did not match historical information to altering an autograph, the 'case' was crap. Only the endless and inflammatory repetition by the media kept that narrative alive, long after it should have been soundly discredited by anything "Fair" or "balanced".
All the breaking stories of long-entrenched and continuous sexual misconduct on the part of liberals and Hollywood types just set the stage and whetted the crowd's appetite for a hanging. No serious repercussions will result for any of them, only Moore. You watch.
So, cui bono? Al Franken won't resign (Suckers!), and John Conyers will pass the torch to the next Democrat in his district, likely a relative. And the GOP will take a hit. Conservatives will be further marginalized, which is just fine with all in Congress.
The Republican Party loses. After McConnell's abandonment of Moore--and his obvious haste to do so, with the attitude that better to lose the seat than to have the candidate the voters of Alabama picked, the GOP may continue to lose ground. After all they have demonstrated the only way they will have a Conservative's back is to stick the knife in. The write-in vote could have made a difference.
Christianity has been smeared as hard as Roy Moore, so Christians lose--and may not see another candidate for either party in our lifetimes (not that a Christian Democrat is a likely phenomenon).
And the Media and the Dems have the sure fire method of taking out anyone with no more proof than I have that the Moon is made of green cheese.
But yes, behind every pejorative phrase and distortion of historical context, there is a media maven, likely groping or being groped, if they aren't just 'hooking up', and too many people let them do their thinking for them. The rabid campaign by the media gets some of the credit, and the rest goes to people who believed them.