With Ohio decided, the election is basically over. Obama also took New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Even if Romney takes Florida and Virginia, he would not have the electoral votes to win at this point.
After the first debate, the polls showed the two candidates tied all over the nation. Many even voted Romney better for the economy and job creation, although they felt that Obama cared more about the middle class. Despite this, Obama consistently held a the lead in the states that really mattered, which ultimately lead to his victory tonight.
As for Congress, the House is still going to have a Republican majority, while the Senate will stay Democrat.
What do you think of the results tonight? Do you think Obama will be able to lead us out of this economic recession? Will he be able to efficiently address Iran's nuclear program? Will he live up to his promises? On that note, would Romney live up to his?
I'd love to read your opinions!
If you haven't already found a source of info on the election, I found this pretty helpful.
9 comments:
In two words—I'm relieved. Not only do I believe that Obama will, indeed, "stick" to his promises, but I strongly support his health and social policies. But just as soon as I could take a sigh of relief... tentative proposition projections are beginning to take form... a not-so-great-for-public-schools form. As I write this now, Proposition 30 seems to hold 48% support and 52% opposition. This does not necessarily mean that Prop 30 will not pass; not all votes have been counted, and depending on the "numbers game" at this point is not particularly meaningful nor effective. However, many reasons, including those discussed in this LA Times editorial, lead me to cross my fingers that it will. I digress... but cheers to Obama (and hopefully Prop 30, too).
Heartbreaking defeat for Romney. Several of those critical swing states were very close. He waited a while before finally conceding as well, a last hope that maybe he would win when the count was finished. When the results came in from Virginia he finally accepted defeat. I am left wondering if people will once again cry out against the Electoral College system we have. I am skeptical of Obama's ability to fix the economy but we'll have to wait and see.
I'm very surprised at how close some of the swing states were, such as Florida and Virginia. I think the election is a reflection of a pretty divided country, considering that Romney lost the popular vote by about 250,000. With all the Romney jokes, such as his "binders full of women" comment, I think I had low expectations for Romney. I'm glad to see that people did not take the comments as seriously as I did. I was expecting more of a total win by Obama.
Regarding Obama and his promises, I think there will be more pressure for him to live up to such promises. Given the close election, I think media coverage could be more critical of his next few years in office. As for his economic plan, I am not a strong supporter. I prefer more of a Reaganomics type approach. Less government involvement in everyday life.
Based on his campaign and track record in office, I think Romney would have had an open mind entering office. I think he would have had a hard time passing things through the senate and that would have reflected poorly on his ability to run the nation. For the sake of our nation, I hope Obama can do something to turn around our economic situation.
I definitely agree with Olivia; I'm so relieved! We still have quite a ways to go, but I believe Obama will live up to his promises to lead us in the right direction. I am glad to have a president that supports gay rights and gender equality, and I agree with many more of his policies and viewpoints. I do not know if Romney would have stuck to his promises if elected, as to this day I am still confused on where Romney stands, considering how much he has flip-flopped on issues. However, I felt that Romney's concession speech was very respectful and dignified and that it was a proper way for him to leave this election.
Anyway, congrats to Obama and I hope for the best for his second term as president.
Truthfully, I'm a little sad. I come from a family that leans toward the Republican side and the defeat in the election does cause an unnerving feeling in my house. However, props to Obama. (Please don't hurt me at school)
For what Obama promises, I expect very little. Not because I don't think Obama really wants to make things happen, but a lot of his ideas are a bit too idealistic. Also a big point to me is the economy. The economy that was supposed to get better is only growing gradually. I say this disgruntled since I've lost a lot of money in the stock market from failing companies (and these tech companies are still doing worse). Also, the House of Representatives is still a Republican majority. Odds are Obama will have a hard time getting anything through the House, even though he finally secured a Democratic majority senate.
On Romney's case, I did not have high hopes for him either. Even if he did get elected I'm not sure I could trust him to be a good President with all his wishy washy attitude. His stances always changed, but he did propose an economic plan that did sound good on paper. (Of course, in reality its a bit on the ideal side) However, even though I lean Republican, I'm not sure I could agree with Romney 100%.
This election to me was not something I looked forward to at any point. Both of the candidates were unappealing to me and it became a partisan election in my household. If I could vote, I'm pretty sure I would have a hard time choosing a candidate and would probably just have ended up voting for Romney because of family partisanship.
Though I am unsure as to whether America's greatest issues will heal in the next four years, I feel more optimistic about them doing so with Obama as the head of the country. Now that the elections are over, I am awaiting the various poll results. It will be interesting to analyze the impact of Latino/a voters, especially after the implementation of Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Was Latino/a participation impacted at all by the program? According to this article it may have been (use Google Chrome to automatically translate). Also, did youth participation increase as it did last year, and, if so, what issues drew the youth to the polls (since Obama and Romney's education policies were not radically different). According to this article, Obama was the clear winner among women. I guess Romney's binders full of women did not come in handy this time around.
Personally, I'm very glad Obama won and I think that this term he will be able to make a much bigger difference. He has a lot of goals and hopefully he can live up to them. He was not as successful in his first term as most people, myself included, hoped.
I think it is important to keep in mind that now Obama does not have to concern himself with re-election. He can now focus all his energy on making all of the changes he promised. He no longer really needs to appease the voters he may have lost to the Rebublican party.
I think Paniz posed some very interesting and on point questions. I think that this election was so close that it came down to depend on some new groups. Obama had been reaching out to the youth, african amerian and hispanix vote. I wonder what was different about the demographics in this election than the 2008 election.
Like the rest of you, I am very happy that the election is over. It is a relief that it is all said and done, and we finally know which direction the country is going for the next four years.
It will be hard to get things done though. Obama still faces a republican house that has been pretty solid in blocking any proposals the democrats make. I hope that they can finally reach consensus on some issues and focus on the American people instead of their own political games.
As for the future of the Republican Party, I believe they will need to adapt if they want to stay a force in American Politics. I was listening to NPR and they made a comment that the Republican Party is 90% white compared to the Democrats who are just 60%. The nation is gowing more and more diverse (White people are no longer expected to be the majority by 2050) and the Republicans will have to change their stances on some key issues if they want to maintain national influence.
Andrew Sullivan (dissatisfied conservative who wants to see the Republican party change) has been talking about the question of the right fever (http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/11/will-the-rights-fever-break-ctd.html) that is well represented by Fox news' coverage of the election. Andrew Sullivan describes the coverage "They have replaced empirical doubt with unerring faith in an ideology that had its moment over thirty years ago and is barely relevant to the world we now live in."
Agreeing with Ian, it seems like there is some adapting to be done by the Republican platform and hopefully this will happen as they definitely could help the country and make policies better.
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