In return, the GOP accepted President Obama's proposal to extend unemployment benefits for jobless workers for a longer period, and both parties embraced a one-year reduction in social security taxes for everyone who pays them. Republicans feared that federal courts were about to order immediate integration of homosexuals into the armed services.
General Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, persuaded them that the military was prepared to accept the change if allowed to implement it gradually. President Obama entered the election year with job approval ratings that were dangerously low roughly 40 percent and an unemployment rate that was dangerously high more than 8 percent for an incumbent seeking reelection.
But, like Bill Clinton in and George W. Bush in , Obama benefited enormously from not having to fight for his party's nomination. Gerald Ford in , Jimmy Carter in , and George Bush in had to wage such battles, and each of them was defeated by his general election opponent in November.
In contrast, Obama was able to use the first eight months of to raise money, rebuild his campaign organization, develop lines of attack on his likely Republican opponents, and launch his general election campaign from a united, enthusiastic Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Caroline, in September Following the pattern of reelection-seeking presidents since the s, Obama chose Vice President Biden to run with him for a second term.
While Obama was uniting his party for the fall, the Republicans were waging a fierce intraparty battle to choose their nominee. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the nomination, but was subjected to severe attacks by his Republican rivals.
Romney won the nomination and placated conservatives by choosing the chair of the House Budget Committee, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as his vice presidential running mate in advance of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. But only then was he able to focus on raising money for the general election, move toward the more popular political center, and direct his campaign toward defeating Obama. The Supreme Court's decision in the case of Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission opened the floodgates to corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals to spend massive amounts of money in an effort to elect either Obama or Romney, as well as in the congressional elections. Obama, like many incumbents, turned in a rusty and therefore ineffective performance. But, chastened by his weak showing, Obama came back strongly in the second and third debates and regained his lead over Romney. Toward the end of the campaign, the unemployment rate finally dipped below 8 percent, reinforcing Obama's claim that his economic policies had placed the nation on the road to prosperity.
Obama defeated Romney by 51 percent to 47 percent in the national popular vote and by to in the electoral vote. His margin of victory was down slightly from , making him the first president since Woodrow Wilson to be reelected by a smaller majority than in his first election. Also disappointing to Obama, the House of Representatives remained in Republican control, by a margin to to Even though twenty-three of their seats were on the ballot in compared with only ten for the Republicans, the Democrats actually gained two seats in the election, raising their majority in the upper chamber to 55 to Still more important for the long term, Obama ran best among those groups in the electorate that were growing most rapidly: young people, single people, nonreligious people, Latinos, and Asian Americans.
Despite his victories, Obama began his second term with a very limited mandate. His campaign's one-word theme was content-free—Forward!
The one specific issue Obama did stress on the campaign trail—his continuing desire to raise taxes on wealthy Americans—bore fruit one month after the election, when Congress voted to raise the marginal income tax rate from More Videos Terry McAuliffe to Democrats: Get it done, do your job McAuliffe said Obama was campaigning for him on Saturday, but his campaign later clarified in a statement that the event will be held next Saturday on October And, in two years we could not be more excited about the momentum, energy, and enthusiasm that has been sparked all across the country.
Read the full post here. A report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers explores the barriers that disadvantaged youth face, particularly young men of color, and quantifies the enormous costs this poses to the U.
In particular, this report focuses on the significant disparities in education, exposure to the criminal justice system, and employment that persist between young men of color and other Americans.
Through this initiative, the Administration is joining with cities and towns, businesses, and foundations who are taking important steps to connect young people to mentoring, support networks, and the skills they need to find a good job or go to college and work their way into the middle class. Learn more about the My Brother's Keeper initiative. At the Convening, representatives from communities across the country that accepted the Community Challenge, along with experts from the private and public sectors, discussed how we can make real progress to expand opportunity for all of our youth.
Watch the opening remarks below, and get more details about the event here. If you're looking for more general election information, you can go to the Info tab. There you'll find snippets of what Obama has accomplished and what he stands for on a issues ranging from education to health care to taxes.
There's also a Local Impact section where you can see quick facts on how Obama has affected your specific state. You can access the Obama campaign's blog posts, as well as general voting information, too.
Social tools are woven throughout Obama for America, making it possible to share everything from featured stories to event information via Twitter, Facebook, text and email. It's clear that the Obama campaign wants to tap into its supporters' social networks and that the team takes its digital efforts seriously. The app itself is well built, and ran quickly and without problem the entire time I used it.
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