For Entertainment, Education and Information 


 

Obama wins

President beats Romney with 274 electoral votes

Obama:  40,022,078 (49%)   Romney: 40,983,134 (50%)

11/7/2012

 

Barack Obama won the United States presidency for a second term this morning.

The first African-American to claim the highest office in America won the keenly-contested poll, dusting the Republican candidate, former Governor Mitt Romney.

The 51-year-old, one-term U.S. senator born of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother, is the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln, who emerged from obscurity to lead America through the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

Obama’s victory over Romney ends months of bitter campaigns and rivalry.

In 2008, Obama won a larger share of the popular vote than any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. He redrew the electoral map, sweeping nearly all the battleground states—including Ohio and Florida—and winning some longtime Republican strongholds, such as Virginia. He won more white voters than John Kerry or Al Gore, the two most recent Democratic nominees. He has experienced one of the most stunning rises in recent American political history, first emerging on the national political scene only eight years ago as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Obama’s supporters, many of them holding flags, watched results roll in on giant television screens in Chicago and around the country and hollered each time another state was called for their candidate. Sounds of music, screaming and crying floated in the air. Cheering crowds gathered at different points around the country cheering and chanting shortly after Obama won the required electoral votes.

Voters turned out in extraordinary numbers. Lines to vote formed before sunrise in many states, and despite heavy use of early balloting this year, some voters waited for hours.

The new administration comes into office committed to revitalising the auto industry, national health-care plan, a shift in the tax burden away from the middle class toward the wealthy and an alternative-energy programme to counter global climate change.

The Republican challenger, Romney, lost both his home and birth states.

Besides, he lost in key battleground states.

The election went as expected after the roller-coaster ride of an election campaign that was buffeted by a superstorm and missteps on both sides.

CNN projected that Republicans would retain their majority in the U.S. House, raising the prospect of another divided Congress with analysts expecting Democrats to hold onto their narrow control of the Senate.

Obama and Romney ran dead even in final polls that hinted at a result rivaling some of the closest presidential elections in history, reflecting the deep political chasm in the country.

A heavy turnout was reported in much of the nation, and both campaigns expressed confidence that they would prevail in what was expected to be a long night awaiting results from the eight states still up for grabs that will determine the victor.

 

Obama got 274 electoral votes to Romney’s 201 (as at 5.30am Nigeria time). He needed 270 electoral votes.

Romney held a lead over Obama in Virginia, another vital swing state, according to the early returns.

Obama won his home state of Illinois as well as Romney’ s home state of Massachusetts — where the Republican previously served as governor. He also won Pennsylvania, Romney’s birth state of Michigan, along with New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

Romney won Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Georgia.

Voters also determined the makeup of a new Congress, choosing all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 senators. Democrats and independents who caucused with them held a 53-47 advantage in the Senate heading into the election, and the unofficial returns indicated the party was likely to retain its majority.

According to early exit polls, 60% of voters said the economy was the most important issue, 59% thought abortion should be legal and 50% wanted Obama’s health care reform law repealed while 43% wanted it to remain in place or be expanded.

The breakdown of voters, according to the early exit polls, was 73% white, 13% African American, 10% Latino and 3% Asian. Pre-election polls showed Romney holding an advantage among white men while Obama had the edge with white women, and Obama receiving overwhelming support among minorities.

Tuesday’s outcome will influence the direction of a government and country facing chronic federal deficits and debt as well as sluggish economic growth in the wake of a devastating recession and financial industry collapse that confronted Obama when he took office as the first African-American president in January 2009.

Around the country, voters formed long lines at polling places after record numbers participated in early balloting, indicating a strong turnout.

Don Palmer, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, said the turnout this year may be stronger than in 2008, when Obama became the first Democrat to win the southern state in 44 years.

Sporadic reports of irregularities included malfunctioning voting machines and other problems, including electoral hardships for some struggling to recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy in states in the country’s northeast.

A judge in Philadelphia, a heavily Democratic city, ordered election officials to cover a mural of Obama at one school used as a polling location after Republicans complained the painting violated election laws.

Elsewhere in the city, GOP poll monitors were being escorted into precincts by sheriff’s deputies after some observers had been denied access earlier in the day, said Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

In New Jersey, which permitted electronic balloting in the aftermath of last week’s storm, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union headed to court on Tuesday on behalf of voters who said their requests for an electronic ballot weren’t being acknowledged

A bullish Romney told reporters on his aeroplane as he flew back to Boston he had written only a celebration speech.

He said: “I’m very proud of the campaign that I’ve run, to tell you the truth.

“I’m sure like any campaign, people can talk to mistakes, but that’s going to be part of anything that’sproduced by human beings.”

The former head of a private equity firm would be the first Mormon president and one of the richest ever to take on the presidential mantle.

Obama told reporters he had speeches ready for either outcome.

Speaking to Denver television station FOX31, he said: “You always have two speeches prepared because you can’t take anything for granted.”

The nation’s first black president is seeking to avoid serving just a single term – something that has happened to only one of the previous four occupants of the White House.

Culled from the Nation

Number of comments: 0

Name: E-mailaddress: Homepage:
Message:
:) :( :D ;) :| :P |-) (inlove) :O ;( :@ 8-) :S (flower) (heart) (star)




Enter the code embedded in the image