Obama Re-elected by US and PGS

US Election Day in 100 seconds:


On 6th November, 2012, Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States with 332 electoral votes versus 206 for Republican rival Mitt Romney (see Obama's victory speech below). Although Obama's electoral vote margin was significant, the popular vote was a little closer (50% for Obama, 48% for Romney), certainly when compared to PGS' mock US election held in school on the same day, which, as Mr Lemieux notes, "Obama won by a landslide: 290-56 (with 2 spoilt ballots)", i.e. 84% to 16%.

Middle School 70 (Obama) -11 (Romney)
Grant 52-18
Latter 34-6 (1 spoilt ballot)
Smith 57-13
Whitcombe 35-5
Common Room 42-3 (1 spoilt ballot)

Reactions to the US Election

Will Wallace (PGS): "This time last year, it seemed very unlikely that a President who had not achieved the economic stability he promised in 2008 could win re-election to a second term. That said, it has been a pretty exciting race: the Republican primaries, the rise and fall of Rick Santorum, the constant ‘Romneyshambles’, Bill Clinton’s top-notch convention speech and that debate which nearly cost Obama the election . . . How did I feel yesterday? Relieved, to say the least." Read rest of article here.
 

NBC: "What happened last night was a demographic time bomb that had been ticking and that blew up in GOP faces. As the Obama campaign had assumed more than a year ago, the white portion of the electorate dropped to 72%, and the president won just 39% of that vote. But he carried a whopping 93% of black voters (representing 13% of the electorate), 71% of Latinos (representing 10%), and also 73% of Asians (3%). What’s more, despite all the predictions that youth turnout would be down, voters 18-29 made up 19% of last night’s voting population and President Obama took 60% from that group." Read rest of article here.

American Conservative: " . . there are going to be a lot of shocked Republicans and conservatives. If you’re a reader of the Greek New Testament (and who isn’t?) the appropriate word is "skandalon". Such a result will be a “scandal” or a “stumbling block” to your friends who were sure that good Ohioans would vote for Mitt Romney and that this Nate Silver guy was cooking the books on the polls, along with the rest of the media. Conservatives will say, with some good reason, that unemployment is unacceptably high. Obama didn’t bring hope or change . . .. So how did this happen?" Read rest of article here.

Salon: "Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, will go down in history as a great day for America. Not just because Barack Obama was elected to a second term, or because Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay senator in American history, or because of the strides made toward marriage equality in four states, or because a bunch of old men who want to take away your right to reproductive choice were sent on their way. That was all awesome, for sure. But it was a great day because it may well have been, after numerous false starts, the real beginning of the end of our long national nightmare known as Donald Trump." Read rest if article here.




Examiner: "President Obama was obviously the biggest winner last night, but not far behind him was New York Times statistical guru Nate Silver. For much of the past year, Silver has been lambasted by conservative critics who argued his Electoral College projection model, which consistently favored Obama, must be wrong. Time and time again Silver tried to explain the relatively simple math behind his numbers, but the doubters remained. When the results came in last night, Silver’s analysis proved correct. Silver correctly predicted the result in all 50 states." Read rest of article here.

President Obama's victory speech: 7th November, 2012:

Film montage showing 60 years of presidential campaigns (from Eisenhower to Obama) in 4 minutes.