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 But during the campaign, he deemphasized other issues that were important to him but politically risky, including immigration reform, climate change, and gun control.
As in , voter turnout was considerably lower in than it had been two years previously: 34 percent in the lowest in a national election since compared with 58 percent in Because midterm electorates tend to have a higher concentration of the older and more conservative white voters who tend to favor Republican candidates, the Democrats were likely to suffer.
Adding to their disadvantage in the Senate elections was that Democrats held 21 of 36 seats on the ballot in , seven of them in states that Obama had lost to Romney. Republicans gained nine seats in the Senate elections, the largest gain for any party since , and took away control of the chamber from the Democrats with a majority.
Joe Klein. Jacob Weisberg. Jodi Enda. On the Web Obama '08 Feb. Total Contributions. Total Receipts. Total Disbursements. In Brief - Elected to the U. Senate in November Elected to the Illinois Senate in and re-elected in and served Moved to Chicago in June and worked three years as director of the Developing Communities Project, a group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods.
One year as a writer and financial analyst at Business International Corporation. They are interested in being part of something larger than petty politics we have seen in the last few years.
This is our time - a new generation that is preparing to lead. Background: Brought up in Hawaii, largely by his grandparents apart from a four-year spell in Indonesia with his mother. His father, Barack Obama, left to return to his native Kenya when his son was two.
Middle name: Hussein. He rarely refers to it, but when asked about it he replied that if his name were going to be a problem with voters then Barack Obama was quite problematic enough. Legal training: Graduated Harvard law school in Skeletons in the cupboard: Obama bought 10 feet of lawn next to his house in Chicago from a well-known Illinois fundraiser who has been indicted in a bribery scandal. Mud has been thrown but failed to stick. Democrats' new great hope takes New Hampshire testing ground by storm.
Barack Obama's campaign team has described the song as dumb. His father, Barack Obama, left to return to his native Kenya when his son was two Middle name: Hussein. He rarely refers to it, but when asked about it he replied that if his name were going to be a problem with voters then Barack Obama was quite problematic enough Legal training: Graduated Harvard law school in So, according to this, Obama cannot be elected for the White House again.
The loophole in this amendment, however, is that unlike the old times, a Vice President is not 'elected' by the masses now. A Vice President, now usually referred to as the 'running mate', is picked by the President-elect and is on the same ticket as the Presidential candidate — an example of this is that if Joe Biden wins the elections this year, Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the Vice President, and Biden will not be given a choice to change his running mate unless there is some unexpected emergency situation.
As per this logic, Barack Obama could have been assigned or can in the future the role of Vice President, as technically he would not be "elected". However, this logic falls short of use when clubbed with the 12th amendment of the US constitution that states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of the Vice President of the United States.
According to this amendment, Obama cannot take charge of the Vice President's office as he is now ineligible for the post of the President of the United States.
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