Now that the shock has worn off, it's time to dig into how Donald Trump managed to blindside Hillary Clinton and pull off an upset.

As I said in last week's column, the signs were there. It was just hard to believe it would happen.

But strong myths took hold that kept many from seeing what was coming. Here are a few:

1. Female voters would soundly reject Trump.

Trump's history, frequently highlighted by the Clinton campaign, indicated he was a brute who objectified women and hurled inappropriate remarks their way. The release of the Access Hollywood video — where Trump boasted of kissing and touching women without their consent — seemed like a nail in the coffin, especially when several women then accused him of groping them.

Trump, analysts figured, could see record low support from women.

Not quite.

While Clinton handily won the female vote overall, Trump, according to exit polls, snared 54 percent of votes cast by white women, an astounding figure considering all the negative publicity.

Turns out many women cared more about the economy and the state of America or were driven by their party affiliation to vote for Trump.

The fact that Clinton was vying to become the nation's first female president wasn't a decisive factor for many women, including the suburban independents who apparently cast their ballots for Trump.

2. Clinton's ground game would carry the day.

Democrats generally beat Republicans in the voter turnout game. That wasn't the case this time.

Clinton's army of paid staff and volunteers dwarfed the team put together by Trump, and she used new aged analytics to drive campaign decisions and target voters.

Trump did it the old-fashioned way. He took his message from town to town with mega-rallies and benefited from earned media. There was no need to coax voters to the polls. They could hardly wait for the election.

Clinton had trouble creating excitement around her campaign, and her base voters didn't rush to the polls like Trump loyalists did.

For this election, passion beat the machine.

3. Clinton inherited Obama's coalition, and Trump couldn't win with only whites.

Since his historic election in 2008, President Barack Obama set the standard with a diverse coalition of voters that featured blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, young voters, and soft Republicans.

With Trump's base being mostly white, most political scientists theorized that Clinton could replicate Obama's coalition and win the White House.

But Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama

At least 5 million voters who supported Obama stayed home, analyses show. That was enough to lose the election, while still winning the popular vote.

The election also showed that despite the nation's growing diversity, it's still possible to win the White House with the overwhelming support of white voters.

4. Trump was hopelessly toxic with Hispanic voters.

The Republican's pledge to build a wall along the southern border and his controversial comments about immigrants here illegally were thought to sink him with the nation's booming demographic.

While Trump lost badly with Hispanic voters, exit polls show he did better with the group than Mitt Romney did in 2012. Many analysts of the Hispanic electorate dispute those figures, but it's clear there wasn't the Latino boom for Clinton that many expected — though Hispanic turnout did increase somewhat across the country, particularly in battleground states.

5. Trump's campaign was a joke.

Clearly not. His supporters are getting the last laugh on Democrats, Republican rivals and members of the media that laughed at his campaign, even as it began to take off during the primary season.

In underestimating Trump, experts and analysts underestimated the intensity of the movement that propelled him.

That was the first mistake, and it led many Republicans to discount Trump until it was too late to stop him. It also led Democrats to think of a sweeping victory that would empower them for decades, causing them to miss the very real battle they faced.