I thought he was just bs'ing at the end of it. He says something along the lines of "yeah, that'll work". Though he very well might have pulled the strings to get her the job once he lost, I don't think his intention was to lose. Once he did, he had to find a way to wrap it up all nicely, hence his comment about "not being a moral parable" when he went to phone the politician. He's trying to reshape his mythos, so it had to be some sort of story.
Overall, I'd say I was underwhelmed (though part of that may have been due to my disappointment with Thor, which I read first). I still think that the methods he used were at least borderline evil, even if his intentions were good. For instance, since no one else was revealed to have killed the hydra agents, I'd say it's safe to assume he arranged that. Which I think is kind of extreme. They were already in custody.
Thor gets turned into a dumb brute and Loki into a wimp. Based on plenty examples from continuity, I'd say neither of these is strictly true, but it still happens.
Insert bitching about TMT that I didn't want to do on the official thread, because it is mostly me crying about it being the hammer and not Loki. (I think I mentioned it but didn't complain much, it feels more appropriate to this thread). I'd say I'm not sure why Aaron chose to use the hammer when Loki's already established (unless he really does want him to be evil or more 'morally grey' as Raye kinda mentioned earlier), but I'm so biased it's ridiculous. I guess maybe to highlight the importance, but the whole thing felt somewhat convoluted, especially as it was explained by a power that can only be used every millenia or so. Isn't that convenient. Yeah, that does make it so we're not always asking why it doesn't show up, but I'm not sure it adds anything to the underlying mythology either. We already had it strongly implied that the hammer was sentient. I guess this confirms it, but I'm still not sure it was necessary.
It does make it possible that the December issue is the next Loki interacts with Thor, although I hope we continue to see him here and there in his own arc as Aaron has been doing thus far.
Edit: It was nice to see him concerned about the citizenry and defending their right to vote for someone else. And also trying to get them to stop rioting (in Vote Loki, I switched topics again
)