President Barack Obama returns to the White House following re-election. He defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential election Nov. 6. Obama garnered 303 electoral votes to win a second term as president.
Despite being portrayed as a neck-and-neck race, by 9 p.m. PDT Nov. 6, Ameri- cans decided that President Barack Obama could keep his desk in the Oval Office for another four-year term.
“It was a very fast decision made (election night), which really surprised me consider- ing how most media stations claimed it would be so con- tentious,” said Andriana M. VanderGriend, senior phi- losophy and political science double major.
Obama secured the race with a total of 303 electoral votes to his Republican contender Gov. Mitt Romney’s 206 electoral votes. The popular votes also fell in the president’s favor with Obama winning 60,662,174 to Romney’s 57,820,742.
“I was not surprised to see Barack Obama’s re-elec- tion,” said Thomas J. Truax, sophomore political sci- ence and philosophy dou- ble major. “I think that if the Republicans want to re- main a relevant party, they should choose better candi- dates. Not to say that Mitt Romney was unqualified, but wealthy, white, religious Republicans are not going Republicans are not going to be able to compete with the cutting-edge Democratic candidates.”
Major news networks were not the only one providing election night coverage. Thousands of people hit social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter with thoughts and rants.
More than 31 million people tweeted about the election, according to Twitter’s official blog.
“It’s ironic how people rarely talk about politics or know what is going on during non-election years, but once the election rolls around they become very political,” VanderGriend said. “Unfortunately, most of my friends were sore winners or losers” because of the election results.
In his victory speech given early Nov. 7 in Chicago, Ill., Obama named four goals for his next term: reducing the national deficit, revising tax codes and immigration laws and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil.
“It will be very interesting to see what Obama does with his second term considering he does not have to worry about another election,” VanderGriend said. “I predict more social measures coming from the legislation as well as a very lax foreign policy.”
Obama joins the ranks of only 16 other men to have held the White House position twice.
Furthermore, the president made history again by becoming the first president since President Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term with such a high unem- ployment rate.
