In 2008, Barack Obama won the presidential race and made history as the first African-American President of the United States. Now, the question is whether or not he will have the same seat after the 2012 election.
Obama is off to an early start as he filed his re-election papers to the Federal Election Commission on April 4, which is earlier than what his last two predecessors did. According to the Los Angeles Times, his campaign aides now face the laborious job of reorganizing and reenergizing the national grassroots operation.
Unlike his election in 2008 where $750 million was raised for his campaign, there is speculation that he could be the first $1 billion candidate.
Through March 8-14, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press conducted a poll among 1,525 adults. Almost half, 47 percent, of registered voters say they would like to see Barack Obama re-elected, while 37 percent say they would rather see a Republican candidate win the 2012 election.
Unlike most jobs, being president can be time-consuming and there is concern of how Obama can focus on his job as president and start his campaign.
However, Obama reassured his followers through Twitter.
“While I stay focused on the job you elected me to do, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today,” Obama said in a tweet.
Even though we will not be able to vote until next year, there are many contributing factors such as unemployment rate, U.S. involvement in Libya, gas prices, the economy and the health care bill that can shape the outcome of the 2012 election.
“To me, it is all, or mostly about the economy,” Tim Luther, professor of political science, said. “I think that the simple fact will be if the economy improves significantly then he will be re-elected easily and overwhelmingly. However, if it struggles or dips, he will have a difficult time being re-elected. That assumes that he does not start an unpopular or unsuccessful war.”
So far, there has been some progress. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate decreased to 8.8 percent. In terms of Libya, it will take some time to determine whether or not it will be a negative or a positive contributing factor for Obama’s re-election campaign.
Luther also stated that the big issue for Obama is people will judge him exclusively based on how things are. For the most part, people know he did not create the mess of the country rather he inherited it. However, at some point, they are going to hold him accountable for solutions and problem solving.
