Well, it’s finally over. Election season 2012 has come to a close with President Barack Obama returning for a second term in office. It was a close campaign, with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama both looking for America’s attention. However, it seems that Obama’s campaign approach had a more positive effect, focusing on the American people and middle class families.
From the beginning, Obama’s campaign team knew what their plan was. Obama was going to focus on gaining the votes of women and minorities, which worked out well for him in the end. Early on in the campaigning, President Obama was looking very vulnerable. His less than confident appearance in the first presidential debate gave Mitt Romney’s campaign new life. However Romney’s overall approach and appeal to the upper class Americans didn’t seem to help him when he needed the votes.
President Obama won seven of the nine battleground states, and is leading in Florida where votes are still being recounted. North Carolina was the only battle-ground state Romney managed to win although all results were very close. Obama also won the popular vote, and although the race looked close early on President Obama still has enough electoral votes to stay in office no matter what happens with Florida’s count.
With President Barack Obama back in office, changes are already starting to happen. In Maryland, voters have decided to allow eligible undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities as part of the Maryland Dream Act. In California, a limit on union members political spending was voted against. Marijuana was legalized in Colorado and Washington, but rebuffed by voters in Oregon. And in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voters decided in the favor of equality for same-sex marriages.
With marked changes happening already, our nation is decidedly at a different place than it was in 2008 when Obama was elected for the first time. However, for the next four years we are confident that even amidst struggle and political, economic, or social crisis President Barack Obama will do what is best for the American people.
~Katie Hurst