T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
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The Chronicle
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012
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ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 53
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
THE ‘UNION MOVES FORWARD’ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012
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ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH YEAR, ISSUE 53
CHRIS CARLSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama prepares to make his victory speech on election night. by Jack Mercola THE CHRONICLE
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This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.
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—Mitt Romney
After a primary and general election campaign that lasted more than a year, President Barack Obama won a second term more handily than some media and both presidential campaigns suggested in the week leading up to Election Day. At around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday evening, Fox News channel and CNN projected that Obama would win the hotly contested state of Ohio, awarding him enough electoral votes to exceed the 270 needed to clinch victory of the 2012 presidential election. In the subsequent two hours, as results continued to roll in, Obama was projected to win several other states that secured his re-election, and thousands of his supporters danced and cheered at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill., the president’s national headquarters. As of 3 a.m. today, Obama had secured 303 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 206. Florida’s 29 electoral votes remained undeclared to either candidate—with 97 percent of precincts reporting, Obama held a slight 0.5 percent or approximately 46,000-vote lead on Romney. In Florida,
an automatic recount is provided if the margin of victory for either candidate is smaller than a half of a percentage point, so Florida’s electoral votes may remain unpledged until a recount is conducted. However, as Obama already surpassed the 270-electoral vote threshold, this will not have an effect on the election outcome. Some news media outlets predicted the Obama victory in the weeks leading up to
“We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.” —President Barack Obama the election, but many made the claim that the race was about as close as it could possibly be. Both campaigns asserted their confidence heading into decision day. Obama’s victory proved fairly decisive, though. He was assumed to be the win-
ner very shortly after the West Coast polls closed. Obama said he shared a telephone conversation with Romney at around 12:30 a.m., in which Romney conceded the election and Obama congratulated his opponent on a hard-fought and “fierce” campaign. Although the crowd attending Obama’s 2012 acceptance speech was considerably smaller than the 2008 crowd that packed Chicago’s Grant Park, his supporters showed a familiar enthusiasm. Obama arrived behind the podium at around 12:35 a.m. CST, escorted by his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, and his two daughters Malia and Sasha Obama, who had grown considerably taller since the last time they celebrated their father’s victory. The president invoked two Americas— one of the past, imbued with the trying but successful history of building a working democracy, and another of the ideal future, refined by bipartisan cooperation, which he promised will be practiced in his second term. SEE OBAMA ON PAGE 6