The final vote tally is in and
the President's victory is significantly stronger than it first appeared
on election night. Barack Obama is the first president
in 56 years to garner at least 51% of the popular vote in two
consecutive elections. President Obama received 65.9 million votes and Mitt Romney received 60.9 million votes. In percentage terms that works out to 51.1% for Obama versus 47.2% for Romney.
The 47% figure is kind of ironic for Mitt Romney because of the
infamous 47% video which played a major role in the 2012 Presidential
election.
The
last President to achieve this feat was Dwight D. Eisenhower (1952 and
1956). There were a number of pundits who labeled the 2012 election as
close and therefore did not provide President Obama with a mandate. I
argue that his victory margin of 5 million votes during a period of 7.8%
unemployment was a VERY convincing win. It was not really that close in
the electoral college or the popular vote. It's a tough pill for the
GOP to swallow, but they need to come to terms with the fact that their
candidate and their policies were soundly rejected by a solid majority
of voters.
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