Speaking with CBS News today, several unnamed aides and advisers to Mitt Romney said the presidential candidate knew he was headed for a loss as soon as the polls closed, but was stunned by the outcome nonetheless.

"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," a senior adviser said. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."

As soon as Colorado was announced and networks had Florida tinted blue, Romney himself told staff members the race was over. "He was shellshocked," another adviser told CBS.

Since then Florida has turned completely blue, and the Romney campaign had no choice but to concede the state a short while ago.

"The numbers in Florida show this was winnable," Romney's Florida advisor Brett Doster told the Miami Herald. "We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn't, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won't happen again."

Putting Florida in Obama's column brings the president's Electoral College vote total to 332 versus Romney's 206.

Though votes are technically still being counted, Obama is currently up by over 55,000 votes, and remaining ballots are mostly in heavily Democratic counties. Officials expect to announce preliminary results by noon on Saturday.

[photo via Getty]