President Barack Obama has defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term in the Oval Office.
Obama narrowly won the electoral college vote, in early projected results, 303 to the Republican 203 at 1:08 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. The Republicans and Democrats are in a tie for the popular vote at 49 per cent each.
Relatively early on election night, Obama began to pick up some of the smaller swing states, projected to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by 10 p.m. Eastern time. These were all states that could have gone either way. This was an early indication of how the night would eventually turn out.
But it was the state of Ohio that clinched the race for the President.
This election was not an easy ride for the incumbent President. He had a poor performance in the first election debate, seeming sleepy in comparison to a fired-up Romney. But he turned things around in the second debate, aggressively challenging his opponent’s points. And polls began to show him pulling ahead in crucial swing state races.
In this election, Obama had to defend a record tarnished by an economic crisis. In 2008, he inherited an economy in recession that saw Americans losing their homes and their jobs. He presided over a slow economic recovery, where today, some 12 million Americans are still without jobs, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
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But he did have some high points in his first term. Among Obama’s achievements was passing the Affordable Care Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will extend coverage to 33 million uninsured Americans by 2022. Although the bill was substantially altered in order to pass Congress, it still represents a significant step forward for health care in the United States.
He also oversaw changes to Wall Street to increase consumer protection and decrease the use of complex financial products, of the kind that helped precipitate the financial crisis. Progress in implementing these measures was slow, however, as Republicans were reluctant to fund many of these instruments.
Obama’s first term as president was also sometimes full of contradiction.
Just twelve days after he took office, Obama was controversially awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Later, as he repeatedly reminded voters in the 2012 election campaign, he presided over the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader responsible for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He also escalated drone strikes in Pakistan.
There are still election promises remaining from Obama’s first election. Notably, and a sticking point for some left-leaning voters, he has yet to close Guantanamo Bay. He also promised to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts for high-income earners, and has yet to do so.
This failure was partially because of a divided Congress. In his second term, Obama will have an equally difficult time getting his agenda though. The Republican Party is still projected to have control of the House of Representatives. The Democrats are projected to maintain their control of the Senate, but only hold it by a narrow margin. This means that it will be just as hard for the President to pass his legislation this term without compromising with Congress Republicans.
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