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Subscribe to RSSIn his acceptance speech, President Obama promised an electrified crowd in Chicago, Ill., that he would "work with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges" Americans face.
Updated at 4:02 a.m. ET: President Barack Obama won four more years in office on Tuesday, describing his victory over Republican nominee Mitt Romney as a call to action that would help move the U.S. past the difficult times endured during the past four years and promising "the best is yet to come."
Propelled by wins in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa – states long touted as Obama’s “firewall” insulating him from his GOP challenger – the president won a long-fought election in which the economy, its slow pace of recovery and Obama’s management of it, became the central issue.
Emerging early in the hours on Wednesday in Chicago to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” the president struck an upbeat note about the challenges that lie ahead during a second term, with which he’ll have to reckon almost immediately in the next few weeks.
President Obama addressed an exuberant crowd, saying he's "never been more hopeful about America" and suggesting the country is not as divided as its politics might suggest.
“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,” Obama said. “With your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead.”
But there were strong indications that the first two years of Obama’s second term would resemble the final two years of his first term – that is with a Republican-held House and nominally Democratic Senate stalemated over major tax and spending issues, as the balance of power in Congress remained unchanged after Election Day.
NBC's Tom Brokaw, David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell weigh in on the Election Day numbers.
The specter of gridlock appeared quickly as Obama prepared to confront the immediate task in addressing the series of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts – the so-called “fiscal cliff” – set to spring into place at the end of this year.
Now that he's won, the six splitting headaches waiting for Obama
As Obama won a second term, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans’ retention of their House majority meant “the American people have also made clear that there is NO mandate for raising tax rates.” And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was even tougher in his statement, saying, “The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president’s first term, they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control.”
President Barack Obama gives a victory speech Tuesday after being elected to a second term in the White House.
Obama nodded to the challenges that lay ahead in his Tuesday evening speech, hinting that he wishes to meet with Romney – as the president had done with Arizona Sen. John McCain after the 2008 election – to seek his help in moving past some of the most intractable problems to beguile Washington.
“Tonight, despite all the hardship that we’ve been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I have never been more hopeful about our future,” Obama told a boisterous crowd in his adoptive hometown of Chicago.
In addition to the looming fiscal cliff, Obama will also have to confront a reshuffling of his cabinet. Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have suggested that they might depart the administration after Obama’s first term, setting up a major remaking of Obama’s inner circle.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.
After months of campaigning that saw ad spending alone reach the $1 billion mark, Obama won a second term with much of his 2008 electoral map intact. Romney managed to flip only North Carolina and Indiana, which Obama won four years ago, back to Republicans in 2012; the GOP nominee failed to put into play more traditionally Democratic states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, on which his campaign concentrated its efforts in the closing weeks of the campaign.
The Midwestern troika of Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin helped insulate the Obama campaign from Romney and preserve Democratic inroads in other states, like Colorado and Virginia.
'We have given our all'
After having claimed momentum in the final days of the campaign, the erstwhile GOP nominee emerged in Boston shortly after 1 a.m. ET to offer his concession, a conciliatory speech capping a bid for the presidency for Romney that has spanned the better part of a decade.
"This is a time for great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation," the former Republican nominee said, joined by his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (who won re-election to Congress) and their families.
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney gives his concession speech Tuesday after President Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2012 presidential race.
"Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign," Romney said. "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead this country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader."
While Romney had campaigned on his own private sector expertise amid a weak economic recovery, improvements in hiring and confidence in the economy allowed Obama to parry his opponent’s criticism.
Exit polls suggested that the economy was, by far and away, the issue at the front of voters’ minds on Election Day. Romney edged Obama nationally by six points among voters who said the economy was their top issue.
Obama outperformed Romney on questions of empathy, and voters nationwide were virtually tied on the more direct question of who would better handle the economy and the budget deficit.
Obama also held a demographic edge over Romney among two key groups of voters. The president bested the former Massachusetts governor by 10 points among women (Romney beat Obama by 8 percent among men). Hispanic or Latino voters also broke heavily for Obama by a 39-point margin.
But despite lingering divisions, the president emphasized points of unity, Wednesday morning, saying the nation “moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family, and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.”
Watch the drama of election night quickly unfold in a three minutes montage of sights and sounds.
More election coverage from NBCNews.com:
- Victorious Obama 'more determined' in face of challenges
- Democrats retain control of Senate with series of hard-fought wins
- Rape remarks sink two Republican Senate hopefuls
- Now that he's won, the six splitting headaches waiting for Obama
- In costliest-ever Senate race, Warren beats Brown for Mass. seat
- Maine's Harley-riding King vowed to 'shake up' D.C.
- Republicans easily maintain control of House
- Colorado, Washington approve recreational marijuana use
- Wisconsin's Baldwin becomes 1st openly gay senator
- Pence in as governor of Indiana; Hassan wins in N.H.
- Majority of voters see American on wrong track
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Hmmm.. The tide turns. Robme now behind. Stay tuned, the RWNJs will be out in force in the morning crying about the destruction of the country. They tried, but it looks like thinking people are going to have the final say.
I'm sitting here looking at through a window into the past.
I am wearing a Continental Uniform and can see musket and cannon flashes all the way up the river. There ebbing down the river is a small raft. a few muzzle flashes into the tree line and the raft disappears round the bend.
I can see the Continental Army moving into many positions along the river bank, orders be given by their commanders, the sound of hoof trodding behind the lines, wagons full of muntions and cannon being pulled to the front.
The Great Continental Army of the United States of America has once again positioned itself against the army of oppression and those who so willingly take from others for their own greed.
That Continental Army is you America. The glint of the moonlite off the bayonet catches the polished bronze buttons on your uniforms. The pride swelling in your hearts not allowing the same tyranny to come back into America as your Fore Fathers once did for you many years ago.
Those Forefathers saw something in America. They saw brigands and brawlers for who they really wanted to be. They saw farmers and carpenters under the throne of an oppressive King. The ForeFathers saw their chance and won their freedoms.
Now we come to those same battle fields once more.
The new charge is not being led by a white man with property but by a black man. A black man who can trace his line back to the days of slavery. A black man who knows what it means to fight through the lines of hate crawling through the mud of oppression. The same lines that are ForeFathers fought and died for.
They died to create a new promise of fullfilment so that others could look upon America and inspire to be free. That promise has been fullfilled this night as the Army of America has once again said "No" to the Church of England mentality and continued to fullfill the promises as set forth by the first Father of America, General George Washington, that America shall be a country where all are free to make a choice and that choice shall not be infringed upon.
President Obama continues that tradition because his family has been there through it all. The Revolutionary War, Civil War, World Two the Civil Rights Movement. President Obama's family has a tradition of figthing the good fight unlike Romney who has only been handed everything that he has and like the King of England he and his hermaphadite degenerate cronies will continue to take the rights of Americans away giving rights to only those who follow the white mans religion that has been forced upon America by the Church of England. Where such rights of what you will be allowed will be forced upon by idiots thinking that they are the voice of god and through them god will tell you what rights you have and do not have.
That is the legacy that Romney will bring to America.
Not the legacy that George Washington and the Founding Fathers and men of the Continental Army and Brigands fought to bring America out from under.
The only promise that the GOP offers is that they will take away from other Americans to give to their faithful who worship them out of fear and their loathing of the money they are given.
Romney's promise is not continued fullfillment of the Constitution of the United States of America. Romneys promise is that of being a master over men just because his father was prominent and no other reason.
dwighthuth
Your just another loser following a loser, I hope you get you wish and barry gets another 4 years. Your life and a lot of others lives are going to suck. barry's first 4 years sucked for the economy, and your only going to get more. barry will go down as the worst prez in history.
O's 4 years were tough but successful. The next 4 will give him the political capital that Bush wasted and Q will use it to bull through the House. It will just take a little time to put the Bohner puppets in line.
If republicans take the house again, Obama will be the loser if he wins.
There was never much question that Republicans would keep the House. But with MA and IN, the Democrats are now assured of keeping the senate
Republicans are going to take the house and the presidency, not to worry!
How does Mitt Romney get away with laundering billions of unreported income in the Caymans through a bank owned by his church?
Wikipedia said that essentially until I started posting it and then "The Only True Church" edited wikipedia. No kidding, Mormon owned Zions Bancorp who got $700M in TARP bought Amegy Bank of Houston and they have a bank in the Caymans.
How does Mitt Romney get away with laundering billions of unreported income in the Caymans through a bank owned by his church?
Give it up. Campaiging is done.
It could come out after the election. I'd like the truth on his hidden financials.
So far (on called states) Nate Silver is running 100% correct. Turn out the lights, the party's over.
These clowns have been smugly anti-Obama/99% for too long now for sleep. Nate is darned amazing though.
Alan Grayson returns to the House :) Go Grayson!!!
My money is still on Romney ...... maybe for another couple of hours more. Nothing can be etched yet.
Willard has lost!! Fare well to douchebags!!!!!
HEY WILLARD, the spray tans and Botox did not work!!!!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
HILLARY CLINTON 2016!!!!
Is that all you can do over at CNN is too take clips from fake t.v. shows to brainwash your audience with?
"Better?"
Get a real network.
Calm down, there's not going to be a Robme presidency.
Congratulations to Pat and the rest of Massachusetts on the election of Elizabeth Warren to the Senate seat. Kudos to Indiana on the election of Joe Donnelly and Ohio for retaining Sherrod Brown!
4 more for 44!
Thank goodness Ohio didn't go to that Mandel kid. What a GOP tool. Congratulations to Elizabeth Warren and Joe Donnelly for winning and running great campaigns.
4 more for 44
Obama only has to win Colorado and Ohio/Florida and it's over. The west coast is a lock, so Romney's chances are looking grim.
This is how the outlook was 6 months ago. Thanks for the update.
CA is 55 electoral votes so if Romney triumphs there he might have it in the bag
"CA is 55 electoral votes so if Romney triumphs there he might have it in the bag"
And if I win Power-Ball I'll be a multi millionaire are tomorrow. My chances of doing that are just about as good as Rooney's chances of winning California.
@ProFreedom Don't hold your breath!!
How much did Adelson part with total??????? Take that Darlin'!!!!
I Don't Vote for Worthless RINO Scum, So I Didn't Vote Presidentially This Time Again.
Just the rest of the ballot.
If the Repubs lose again, like they always do every single time they put up RINOs-- the vermin in the GOP establishment are such spineless cowards that they keep putting them up anyway--.......then hopefully they will have gotten the message.
Woulda voted for Santorum or Bachmann. Probly won't vote Republican again until they deport all illegal scum. Mitch Daniels of Indiana would have cleaned this race up.
We Probably Would Have Won Even With Santorum...Maybe we still will with Romney, we'll see. But the Repubs left a couple million votes out there, like me, by putting up a RINO.
and captured far more independents by running a reasonable candidate instead of a nutcase like santorum.
chesty, there are far more reasonable independents than right wing crazies like you, so the GOP ran the best chance they had. :)
Chesty --- I'm one of those RINO'S and I crossed party lines because of the extremist ,racist Tea Party , thank you very much.....
You mean your months of ranting about Obama the socialist, the freeloaders, what a lousy job he did, ad nauseum, and you DON'T EVEN VOTE ?
I'm sorry, but you really have demonstrated what a loser you are for all your 'patriotic' drivel.
so you say....a real RINO wouldn't call people racist who aren't though. The Tea Party has never said or done anything racist ever, they just ran on limited government.
Because leftwingers like you are stupid and you can only comprehend simple, limited ideas...you just call limited government people racist. Thankfully the word doesn't mean anything anymore though, so if someone's called racist, people feel like instinctively they have to check what the circumstances are first, before accepting the claim, since you cry wolf on it 24/7.
Yeah Chesty,your side lost because they weren't doing a good enough job alienating MORE voters to go after the ever narrowing old white male demographic.
Good luck with that nimrod. Personally I hope a clown like you who believes the idiocy that you post here gets the RNC chairman job.
Oh well,don't know why anyone would expect you to show an ounce of class now that your side has lost. It's not like class was something you ever possessed to begin with.
Just remember something Chesty---the misery that you're going to feel every day from this result for the next 4 years---that's because of YOU and who YOU are and YOUR hateful view of the world.
You deserve every second of your own personal Hell.
Enjoy.
I will feel no misery from the result, idiot. If you paid any attention, I said I didn't vote for Romney.
Which means I'm indifferent, between him and the president.
But...having said that, I'm still against you...so I will come on here and mock your suffering if you lose, or would have if you pull it out.
Yeah right Chesty. Keep flapping.
You've been naught but a whining little a-hole on this board for over a year and while you may not have been able to get behind Mittens the Insipid (can't blame you there,good call) if you think anyone who has read your drivel for all this time actually believes that the prospect of another term for President Obama doesn't make you want to gouge your eyes out with an olive fork...well,much like Mittens you can keep trying to sell that crap,but we ain't buying.
As for mocking me...go for it,chuckles. I spent over 150 hours of my time going into Virginia (mostly) and Pennsylvania (a little) to support my candidate.
See Chesty,I and others like me had something and someone to be FOR,your side only has something to be against.
FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Romney wins, then America is f**ked. Simple as that. Health care is screwed. Education is raped.
I'd really like to continue my education. So really, vote for Romney, let him win, and I'll find you. >:<
Yah right idiot......our pitiful, leftwing education system is way too expensive as is, and Romney wouldn't cut much, he's pretty much a RINO thru and thru.
But we could cut a lot and it would be irrelevant. If money solved the problem, we would be #2 in the world behind Norway, instead of #26 or whatever we are.
Hah! And America hasn't been @!$%#ed the past four years? And you want four more years of pain?
no, every time the Republicans run as rightwingers they win overwhelmingly like 2010. And 1994. And 1988. And 1984. And 1980.
RINOS always lose.
You far left vermin called the Tea Party crazy in 2010, and they picked up 63 seats. So, your suggestions mean either you're terrified of real rightwingers running or you're stupid. But thanks for the advice, we on the right always value far left radical advice on what the right should do.
yeah, akin and mourdock are showing the "strength" of running right wing crazies. lol. If the GOP had run RINOS in the senate races they might have control.
clue for the clueless: no one like santorum has won (well, at least in recent elections). reagan, bush 1, bush 2 were nothing like santorum.
your theory stinks. :)
Bush 2 and Santorum were identical, almost down the line on every social issue.
Thanks for bringing up the 2004 example, although Santorum would have the advantage over Bush of not stumbling all over himself like Bush always did.
What you lefties think is radical is irrelevant to the rest of America. It means nothing to anyone else. The more radical you call a Republican presidential candidate or House campaign (1980, 1984, 1994, 2010), the better their chances of winning.
"Extreme" and "radical" have been run into the ground by the Left as much as "racist"...the words mean nothing anymore to 60% of the country.
no, santorum is scary. Bush 2 wasn't.
bush 1 was a rino by today's standards, but he won.
your theory stinks. :)
PS - I'm a "lefty"? oh, I see, anyone who disagrees with you is a "lefty". lol. you're funny.
Apparently what us 'lefties' think is more than just relevant.
Obama will be the next prez.
Wake up and smell the coffee. This waas the last time the republicans could be the white male only party. Getting radical right won't keep them in national politics.
Embracing all Americans will.
Good to see the usual Leftwing revised views on past Republican presidents, as to how "they weren't that bad"...at the time, we had to hear nonsense about how Bush Jr. was "setting up a theocracy", but I figured you liars with a 5 minute memory would change on that later on.
Bush 1 ran as a rightwinger in 1988, (and the Rotten Left called him a racist then too because they ran an ad about a terrible case in Massachusetts, which involved a black criminal)......
and he got 53% of the vote.
Then he raised taxes, and ran as a RINO in 1992 and lost to Clinton in a 3 way race where he and Perot (running on limited govt) got 56% of the vote and Clinton got 43%
Bush Sr. was a moderate in 1988, a moderate when he was president and a moderate afterwards.
Why do repubs insist on rewriting history ?
"RINOS always lose."
Keep thinking that Chesty -- you're doing the Democrats a huge favor. The only demographic Republicans have are old, white haired white guys and old, blue haired white women and they are dying off.
Bush Sr. ran on Reagan's coattails and against high crime rates then gripping America....was called racist by the rotten Left over the Willie Horton ad......ran as a r ightwinger, won overwhelmingly.
Then broke his promise on taxes, and ran as a RINO 4 years later, and lost to Clintoon, although Perot ran on limited govt and 19%...you could call 1992 another limited govt election if you want.
That was a midterm election and Obama was not on the ballot, you idiot..
What happen last night idiot.. Teaparty = Nothing..
I know who controls the purse strings and who is really in control of the House ?
You won't be going to school on our dime unless you move to China then we will school you in hard labor for pennies.
I'm still Rich and most aren't so what do I care.
Do you think Congressman listens to you or did he sign a contract with me?
Say good night Mitts.
The fat lady is already singing.
He seems to be winning so far so maybe the 'singing' you hear from the fat lady is emiting from her arse
Warren wins in Mass.....that is so great! How about Hillary/Warren ticket in 2016.
No doubt President Obama will be President for 4 more years and continue to lead America on the road to recovery.
I took the day off to knock on doors, make phone calls, and drive people to voting places.
This is what it is all about....Americans voting.
Obama/Biden 2012
so true. I've been knocking on doors for 3 weeks, trying to get the vote out. Was a poll watcher this go around (worked as poll mgr for a number of years). Making that personal contact with the voters is what it's all about.
Let me start by saying I love America and would not want to live anywhere else, except may be Canada, but our government is just ass backwards. The election process is ridiculous and how many of you truly understand the electoral college? I sure the hell don't....and believe me, I have tried. Popular vote should win. Period. Point blank. My vote did not count. It never has. As long as I have been voting, my state always goes red. My canidate never gets one single electoral vote from Texas...thus my vote did noy count. My canidate did not benefit from my vote. And it pisses me off. It makes me so freaking mad. Our entire government process is clouded and confusing. Nothing is straight forward. You have to have 2/3 for this and 3/4 for that.....it is enough to make a math major crazy. Politics should not be about math. It should be about serious issues facing Americans and who we think can do the best job at solving those issues. Something needs to change. We have got to do something....Our president, whether republican or democrat, gets blamed for everything that goes wrong in the country. No one stops to think that they don't have have full control. They have opposition at every turn. How do you expect them to make a difference, to get anything done? If you want to see a change, give them a chance. Let their policy go into effect and see if it benefits us or not? It can't be any worse thatn the crap we have had to endure thus far.
Our electoral system is outdated. Our justice system is broken. Our politicians are filthy rich and useless. We have to do something...........but what????????
I think I am going to run for office...any office and try to figure out the solution........
Lets split this country up, I'm sick of the Barry Obama lover's. Republican's are going to make your life hell for the next 4 years. Let's just split it up and be done with this nonsense.
Then who would pay the red states welfare checks?
why do you waant to make fellow American's lives hell and why are you advocating civil war? Just because some people disagree with you? Grow up and grow a set, hon.
Fine with me americalast/ignorancefirst-foremost-and always...
Personally as a resident of Maryland I'm phucking sick and tired of my state being one of the ones that subsidizes you dickwad goober states.
GET THE PHUCK OUT AND STAY OUT THIS TIME.
"Lets split this country up, I'm sick of the Barry Obama lover's"
Why don't you leave?? This nation doesn't need people like you.
Romney is currently behind in Ryan's home town....and plenty more where that came from. It doesn't look good for Romney.
So what, Ryan's district is a left-leaning one.....they just like him so he keeps getting elected. Dems have a voter ID advantage there, but it's close enough that with the fact that Ryan is awesome, he always wins.
I cannot believe people voted for a man who watched while American's died in Libya, and didn't raise a finger to help.
Debunked a long time ago.
i can't believe you keep posting stupid fox talking points. :)
Not debunked, not reported. Sorry, you are wrong. Why not tell that to the families of those who died.
Really who ever wins I hope the fighting stops and work to gather for the good of the people.
sadly, no chance of that.
Hey Teatards...your boy is losing FL, CO, and OH. Pretty solid projections that he's going to lose Iowa, Wisc and Virginia too. If Obama takes FL (a state that most thought Robme was going to win) then it's pretty clear ending and not one you're going to cheer about.
Just remember one thing: Nobody likes a sore loser.
No one likes a stupid winner either.
Tracy honey...for MONTHS I've listened to "stupid" fanatics on both sides claiming "landslide" victories were going to happen...more-so from the right than the left when it was pretty clear (even to the brain dead) that the President had a leading egde.
So don't lecture me about being stupid.
If Ohio goes to Pres Obama, the fat lady has sung. All over, all done.
All the takers out there are in for a rude awakening. There is no money to continue paying to wipe their a.. for them.
Obama cares passes, insurance costs still on the rise and the hospitals and doctors keeps increasing costs..
Our country is so screwed.