U.S. ELECTION: Barack Obama re-elected president of the United States

                                

Barack Obama has defeated the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney in an extraordinarily tight battle for the White House.
The Democrat was swept back to the White House, holding off the Republican challenger in the key states of Ohio and Iowa.
In a tweet even before the result was declared, President Obama said: “This happened because of you. Thank you.”



It had been predicted to be a close race but in the end Romney’s campaign failed to catch fire and Obama scored a comfortable win in the battleground states.

Romney was unable to penetrate the Democrat firewall put up around Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan despite spending millions of dollars on TV ads.

Florida and Virginia have yet to declare but the Ohio forecast secured Obama his second – and final – four-year term.

Voter turnout was reported to be high, with long queues at some polling stations following the most expensive presidential battle in US history at a cost of $2 billion.

The president had spent the day playing basketball in a gym near his home in Chicago and told reporters he was “confident we’ve got the votes to win”.

President Obama sent another tweet thanking his supporters: “We’re all in this together. That’s how we campaigned, and that’s who we are. Thank you.- BO”

The economy proved a huge drag as he fought to turn it around after the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s – a downturn that was well under way when he replaced George W Bush in the White House on January 20, 2009.

No US president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s had run for re-election with a national jobless rate as high as it is now – 7.9%.

In foreign policy, Obama ended the war in Iraq and the US intelligence and military tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden.

However, a new host of Middle East crises – especially the war in Syria and the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Libya – overshadowed the last months of the campaign.

Win not by accident

President Obama has told supporters his win “wasn’t fate and it wasn’t an accident”.

In an email sent to people signed up to his campaign, he said: “Friend, I’m about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first.

“I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen.

“You organised yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward.

“I will spend the rest of my presidency honouring your support, and doing what I can to finish what we started.

“But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place.

“Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests.

“There’s a lot more work to do.

“But for right now: Thank you.

Barack”

People before politics

Mr Romney in his brief concession speech said advised all politicians both of the Democratic and Republican parties to put the American people before politics.

“I have just called President Obama to congratulate him,” he said.

He told Republican supporters in Boston: “I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

Mr Romney asked all Americans to remember the Obamas in prayers while thanking volunteers and sponsors for their contributions to his campaign.
Source -Channels