"And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned
from you and you have made me a better president."
President Barack Obama's victory speechhe told a crowd of cheering supporters in Chicago. read:
"Our economy is recovering, a decade of war is ending, a long
campaign is now over," "And
whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from
you and you have made me a better president. I have never been
more hopeful about America. ... We're not as divided as our politics suggest. We
remain more than a collection of blue states and red states."
"I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly,"
Obama said. "And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics who tell us that
politics is nothing more than a contest of evils or the domain of special
interests. If you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out to our
rallies and along the rope lines of high school gyms, or saw folks working late
at campaign office or some tiny county a long way from home, you'll discover
something else."
President Barack Obama defeated
Gov. Mitt Romney and won himself a second term on Tuesday after a bitter and
historically expensive race that was primarily fought in just a handful of
battleground states. Obama beat Romney after nabbing almost every one of the 12
crucial battleground states.
The Romney campaign's last-ditch attempt to
put blue-leaning Midwestern swing states in play failed as Obama's Midwestern
firewall sent the president back to the White House for four more years. Obama
picked up the swing states of New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa,
Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Ohio. Of the
swing states, Romney picked up only North Carolina. Florida is still too close
to call, but even if Romney wins the state, Obama still beat him in the
Electoral College vote. The popular vote will most likely be narrower than the
president's decisive Electoral College victory.
In a sweeping victory speech early
Wednesday morning, Obama thanked every American who voted, and vowed to work
with leaders from both parties to tackle the country's challenges.
The Republican candidate Romney said. "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your
hopes to lead your country in another direction. But the nation chose another
leader." Romney congratulated the president and his campaign on their
victory.
The Obama victory marks an end to a years-long campaign that saw historic
advertisement spending levels, countless rallies and speeches, and three
much-watched debates.
The Romney campaign cast the election as a referendum on Obama's economic
policies, frequently comparing him to former President Jimmy Carter and asking
voters the Reagan-esque question of whether they are better off than they were
four years ago. But the Obama campaign pushed back, blanketing key states such
as Ohio early on with ads painting him as a multimillionaire more concerned with
profits than people. The Obama campaign also aggressively attacked Romney on
reproductive rights issues, tying Romney to a handful of Republican candidates
who made controversial comments about rape and abortion.
The ads were one reason Romney faced a steep
likeability problem for most of the race, until his expert performance at the
first presidential debate in Denver in October. After that debate, and a near
universal panning of Obama's performance, Romney caught up with Obama in
national polls, and almost closed his favorability gap with the president. In
polls, voters consistently gave him an edge over Obama on who would handle the
economy better and create more jobs, even as they rated Obama higher on caring
about the middle class.
All in all this is a victory for all Americans.
