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| Barack Obama |
President Barack Obama won re-election
on Tuesday night despite a fierce challenge from Republican Mitt Romney,
prevailing in the face of a weak economy and high unemployment that
encumbered his first term and crimped the middle class dreams of
millions.
The President sealed his victory in Ohio, Iowa, New
Hampshire and Colorado, four of the nine battleground States where the
two rivals and their allies spent nearly $1 billion on duelling
television commercials.
The President is chosen in a
State-by-State tally of electors, not according to the nationwide
popular vote, making such “battleground” States which vote neither
Republican nor Democrat on a consistent basis particularly important in
such a tight race.
“This happened because of you. Thank you,” Mr. Obama tweeted to supporters as he secured four more years in the White House.
Despite
widespread voter dissatisfaction with government, Democrats won two
more years of control of the Senate and Republicans were on track to do
likewise in the House.
Mr. Romney was in Massachusetts, his long and gruelling bid for the presidency at an unsuccessful end.
The two rivals were close in the popular vote.
Mr.
Romney had 45.2 million votes, or 49 per cent. Mr. Obama had 45
million, also 49 per cent, with 65 per cent of precincts tallied.
But
Mr. Obama’s laser-like focus on battleground States gave him the
majority in the electoral vote, where it mattered most. He had 284, or
14 more than needed for victory. Mr. Romney had 200.
Yet to be settled were battlegrounds in Florida, Virginia and Nevada.
The
election emerged as a choice between two very different visions of
government whether it occupies a major, front-row place in American
lives or is in the background as a less-obtrusive facilitator for
private enterprise and entrepreneurship.
The economy was rated
the top issue by about 60 percent of voters surveyed as they left their
polling places. But more said former President George W. Bush bore
responsibility for current circumstances than Obama did after nearly
four years in office.
About 4 in 10 said the economy is on the
mend, but more than that said it was stagnant or getting worse more than
four years after the near-collapse of 2008. The survey was conducted
for The Associated Press and a group of television networks.
Democrats
got off to a quick start in their bid to renew their Senate majority,
capturing seats in Indiana and Massachusetts now in Republican hands.
In
Maine, independent former Governor Angus King was elected to succeed
retiring Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. He has not yet said which
party he will side with, but Republicans attacked him in television
advertising during the race, and Democrats rushed to his cause.
Polls
were still open in much of the country as the two rivals began claiming
the spoils of a brawl of an election in a year in which the struggling
economy put a crimp in the middle class dreams of millions.
The
President was in Chicago as he awaited the voters’ verdict on his four
years in office. He had told reporters he had a concession speech as
well as victory remarks prepared. He congratulated Mr. Romney on a
spirited campaign. “I know his supporters are just as engaged, just as
enthusiastic and working just as hard today” as Mr. Obama’s own, he
added.
Mr. Romney reciprocated, congratulating the man who he had campaigned against for more than a year.
Earlier,
he raced to Ohio and Pennsylvania for Election Day campaigning and
projected confidence as he flew home to Massachusetts. “We fought to the
very end, and I think that’s why we’ll be successful,” he said, adding
that he had finished writing a speech anticipating victory but nothing
if the election went to his rival.
But the mood soured among the Republican high command as the votes came in and Mr. Obama ground out a lead in critical States.
Like
Mr. Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden was in Chicago as he waited to find
out if he was in line for a second term. Republican running mate Paul
Ryan was with Mr. Romney in Boston, although he kept one eye on his
re-election campaign for a House seat in Wisconsin, just in case.
The long campaign’s cost soared into the billions, much of it spent on negative ads, some harshly so.
Democrats
held their narrow majority in the Senate, grabbing Republican seats in
Massachusetts and Indiana and turning aside Republican challenges in
Missouri, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Republicans were well
on the way to retaining control of the House of Representatives,
ensuring that Congress will be divided at the start of Obama’s second
term in office.
Barack Obama Won in US President Elections 2012
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Oleh
Anonymous
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