WASHINGTON: Voters awarded President Barack Obama a second term Tuesday, as he swept most battleground states despite voters' lingering concerns about the economy and the direction that the country is headed.
From the start of this campaign, polls showed the president with narrow but persistent leads in the states that would have the final say on Election Day. While the overall vote was close nationally, Mr. Obama defeated challenger Republican Mitt Romney in most of the tossup states, including the most coveted, Ohio.
The Republican nominee's late push to expand the electoral map and make states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan competitive fell short, leaving him little chance of winning without Ohio in his column.
In the end, Mr. Obama relied on a sophisticated ground operation to mobilize the demographic groups that had been his most reliable supporters: minority, young and female voters. Mr. Romney managed to peel away many white voters, particularly working-class men, but that wasn't enough to overtake the president.
Exit polls showed Mr. Obama with 60% support among voters under 30, and he won 55% of the female vote. While Mr. Romney won 58% of the white vote, according to exit polls, the president had the support of 93% of black voters and 69% of Latinos.
When 270 electoral votes appeared to be within reach, Mr. Obama tacitly declared victory on Twitter.
"We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. Thank you," he tweeted. Supporters gathered in Chicago began their victory party, and celebratory shouts echoed in downtown Washington, D.C.
Mr. Romney hadn't conceded defeat as of early Wednesday morning. Mr. Obama, though, continued to rack up wins in most of the battlegrounds, including Colorado, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, leaving no apparent path to victory for the Republican. The president also held slight leads in Florida and Virginia, but both states remained too close to call.
"This is a study in what an effective ground game can accomplish," said Michael Hunt of the Democratic Party in Iowa, where Mr. Obama won. "It's like we studied for an exam for months and now we've earned it."
Mr. Obama's victory in the bruising campaign marks a landmark in modern election history. No sitting president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 has won re-election with a higher unemployment rate, which stands at 7.9%. It is also the first time since 1816 the U.S. has had three consecutive two-term presidents. Also re-elected was Joe Biden of Delaware as vice president.
Tuesday's election was the culmination of the most expensive presidential contest in history, as both parties funneled billions into attack ads, super-PAC expenditures and get-out-the-vote efforts. Mr. Romney relied on a single, overarching message, believing that this election would turn on the economy.
Exit polls suggested that the argument had some resonance, with most voters saying that the economy was the most important issue and only four in 10 saying that it was getting better. Still, voters were nearly evenly divided on the question of who would better handle the economy, and more voters viewed Mr. Obama favorably than the Republican challenger.
Though it was a hard-fought and expensive election, it yielded a status quo result after $6 billion in spending and an estimated 1.2 million political ads. Mr. Obama retained the presidency, and Congress remained divided, as Republicans kept control of the House and Democrats still held a majority in the Senate.
In many ways, Tuesday's results appeared to be an endorsement of the president—but not necessarily his policies. While many voters expressed positive feelings about the Obama administration, a plurality of voters support a repeal of Mr. Obama's health-care law, exit polls showed. More than half said government is doing too many things better left to individuals and businesses, one of Mr. Romney's oft-stated themes.
Messrs. Obama and Romney both projected confidence up until the polls closed, and even as returns began to trickle in, advisers from both camps continued to argue that they saw a path to victory. The president said he was cautiously optimistic Tuesday, and after greeting supporters in Pittsburgh Tuesday, Mr. Romney said he felt more certain than ever that he would win.
The exit polls showed Mr. Romney's message that he would be a better steward of the economy failed to resonate as widely as he hoped. Just more than half of those polled said the Republican's policies favored the rich.
In Ohio, perhaps the biggest prize among the swing states, voters were nearly evenly split on the question of who would better handle the economy, according to the exit polls, and a majority said former President George W. Bush was more to blame than Mr. Obama for current economic problems.
Strong turnout around the country also appeared to favor the president, although final figures weren't available. Polling places around the country saw long lines, with some people waiting two hours or more to cast their ballot.
In Manassas, Va., poll worker Maurica Rodgers, who has volunteered at the site for 15 years, watched the line of hundreds of voters and said, "This is the most I've seen for a presidential election." At a Burbank, Calif., church, two dozen people were waiting to vote before the polls even opened, poll workers said.
Strong support from women was critical for the president. Marina Santos, 41, said at a polling place on the northern outskirts of Nevada that she voted for Mr. Obama "because I'm for women's rights." Referring to what she called attacks by the Republican Party on women, Ms. Santos, an unemployed appointments clerk, added, "It's my body. I should be able to choose what I do with it."
In Nevada, some Latino voters cited Mr. Romney's tough talk about immigration as a reason for voting for the president. During the Republican primaries, Mr. Romney offered support for "self-deportation" by those in the country illegally.
"I don't think he likes Latinos," said 32-year-old Norma Teo, a Mexican immigrant voting in a U.S. election for the first time after gaining her American citizenship earlier this year. She said she voted for Mr. Obama, in part, because "he's started doing things for Latinos, like giving more scholarships for students."
Mr. Romney did better among men and those who were concerned about the economy. "I just lost my job on Friday," said 52-year-old voter Bob Lamb in a suburb of Detroit. The Romney supporter had been working in telecommunications for a year, but was unemployed the year before. "We need real change in this country and an end to all of the regulations that are hurting business and keeping them from growing," Mr. Lamb said.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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