Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney
The Presidential Election of 2012 saw Obama fight for his second term in office as President of the United States against his closest opponent to date, Mitt Romney. There has been a huge amount of speculation (especially from the Republicans) as to whether or not Obama won the election because of the Democratic party's policies or because as a nation they just like Obama.
For almost the entirety of the campaign the contest has been neck and neck, which both confused and worried Americans and people around the globe. It was a shock to see that Barack Obama had a really close competitor on his hands and he really needed to prove to the American people that he was the right man for the job. Many have seen Mitt Romney in a negative light due to his persona of being a typical wealthy, upper class American; who didn't really come across as a likeable person or very representative of his countrymen and women. When you compare him to Barack Obama you can't help but feel he makes you squirm a little bit. For me, what really stood out was the notion of 'Anyone But Bush' - which to me is a huge factor in his first success of being put into office. I think that Barack Obama looks, speaks and acts like a true leader, whether or not his policies work, he always seemed to be the man for the job. But in reality, anyone but Bush.
I stayed up to watch most of the election on the BBC before falling asleep half way through, I was anxious to see again how neck and neck it was. The map that showed what states Romney and Obama had won showed that the majority was in the Republican's favour. However the amount of Electoral College votes received obviously went to Obama and the Democratic party. Obama received 332 electoral votes compared to Romney's 206. This was something that shocked many people considering how close the competition was throughout the entire Presidential Campaign and I was convinced it would be Obama literally by the skin of his teeth. I think that many people thought it would closer due to how close it was prior to the night of the election. Some days Obama was in the driving seat, other days Romney was.
This specific article within the BBC news website shows a line chart of how the favourability differed between both candidates from May to November. You can see that there are many different fluctuations and specific key events that affected their percentage of the votes. You can see that Obama had a huge spike in his campaign when he expresses his support to gay marriage. There is also a dip in Romney's favour here in his contrasting view of opposing gay marriage. Further down the line in around the time of the first Presidential debate you can also see a spike for Romney as he was declared the winner of the first debate. Again this was another significant event for a lot of people when they seemed to have witnessed their leader beaten by his fiercest opponent. Personally I saw this as a huge shock, I didn't expect Romney to beat Obama at all. However Obama didn't seem to be as a bubbly and valiant as he usually is, could this have been nerves or a fear of his first true opponent?
To summarise, there are many factors to consider as to why Obama got voted back into the White House for another term. You could say that Obama won by a popularity vote, which some say is the sole reason and is against the main reason of electing a President. Another way you could see the election is was Mitt Romney the best candidate for the job as the main representative of the Republican Party and the Republican supporters around the country? He was criticised heavily throughout his entire campaign for certain mishaps, and loopholes in his policies. Don't get me wrong, so was Obama, but Romney seemed to suffer the worst of the two - again, is this due to popularity and representativeness?
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