Why Obama Won 2012

"I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting." - Barack Obama 


It's been 16 hours since Obama was declared the 2012 winner in the United States Election of the President of the United States.  It is now official that he will be in office for the maximum number of terms.  To Obama and his campaign, I say congratulations.  I saw it coming a mile away, but didn't think it would be as close as it was.  However, since much of this campaign stank of 2004's rot, I guess I should have expected a tight race.  Literally billions of dollars were spent on campaign ads - thanks to the Citizen's United decision by the Supreme Court.  Some say Romney spent more, others Obama.  The numbers could be turned either way depending on how you looked at the spending.  But campaign ads weren't why Obama won.  

I noticed, just before the election, that Romney had a few rough bumps on the landing - The Jeep plant thing, the "Politicizing of Sandy" thing - and the people in certain battleground states began shying away from him...at the last minute.  Romney had been on a roll.  After the Binders of Women thing, he pulled a fast one on us and began closing in on Obama's lead by giving us a glimpse of what his plans were.  They were good, too.  For the most part.  But the gaffes weren't why Obama won this election.  

I thought once that the African-American communities would want an African-American president instead of a White-Anglo-Saxon-Mormon.  Never mind the backgrounds, for some, the racial difference is enough... and vice versa.  Let's face it - racism is something that has built our society, whether we like to admit it or not.  Almost every form related to your person, be it ID, Birth Certificate, college application, work application, tax form or survey, regards your "ethnicity" as a background.  It's there.  Moving forward, I also figured much of the Hispanic/Latino vote would go his way, especially since he's for the Dream Act .  But, his racial qualifications weren't why he won this election. 

The news that he had won a majority of women voters and youth said a lot.  And homosexuals... of course he was going to win over the LGBT voters after being in favor of Marriage Equality.  If Obama begins to throw his weight around, and gets enough bipartisan support, he could make legal something that has been socially illegal, if not lawfully, for over 3000 years.  How much literature has been written, how many stories have been told of the forbidden homosexual love?  It reflects that history, that social repression we place on ourselves with or without laws... and here's a president - easily the most powerful man on the face of the planet - for overturning it.  But having an open social outlook is not why he won this election.

Obama, during his first presidency, not only talked the talk, he walked the walk.  He made sure those people helping him got theirs, and did the same for those aiding or hampering him on the other side.  He got Bin Laden (even though there may be some doubt to Bin Laden's true involvement...not going to argue that point here).  He helped Egypt create a government for itself, and respected it.  He did the same for Libya.  Even though things backfired a little, he was patient, and saw their mourning as a sign of friendship and peace.  Rather than go in guns blazing, he took the higher road, and extended trust in their capabilities to aid our search for those who committed the act.  He ended the War in Iraq (though some do not believe that to be true, so I hear through people I meet).  But the leadership he displayed to get us where we are, despite every effort of the opposition party to negate him and unseat him, is not why he won this election.  

Obama won because of the masses.  Obama won because more people voted for him.  If the government is the will of the people in this country, then the election is our voice.  Like it or not, that's all it boils down to.  We gather together, every two-four years, depending on our interest, and decide who is going to lead our country for the next four years.  We do so because we want to feel like our voice counts.  I did.  Whether my voice really counted or not, I was one of the millions that voted.  When I finished, I placed my ballot in the box and watched it sink into the ocean of votes to count later.  I wondered, how many other people did the same thing, even though their vote "didn't really count."  Add 'em up, you get an election.  And that's why Obama won.