This is really bothering you, eh?

take it easy. the findings are not that sensational that one would want to spend so much thought on them. I would say it pretty muczh tends towards what would have been expected anyway.
And a controlgroup in this case you could not have had, because almost every being in the civilised world knew that the election was held and that Obama was one candidate.
Also, some of the things you accuse them of having failed at, they have exmained for sure.For example social surrpunding of alcohol consummation had been separately tested, with a result of
"None of these factors absorbed a significant portion of the variance (all Fs<1.0), and the Time x Outcome (Win/Loss) interaction was still significant and of the same magnitude (F(2, 94) = 3.27, p = 0.04). "
Also, their conclusion is quite a bit more differentiated than you quote them.
All in all they just boost the long-held theory of physiologists and behavior scientists that variations in self esteem are not only a purely cognitive process, but also have strong endocrine component.