US President Barack Obama’s hard-fought second term to the White House amid an economically distressed America was impressive. He won 332 of the 538 Electoral Votes, comfortably more than the 270 he needed to retain the presidency.
But the imposing Electoral College lead masked a relatively narrow margin of popular votes in battleground states that saw a tense finish: Overall, nationwide, Obama had polled around 59 million votes (just over 50 per cent) to Romney’s 56 million (48.4 per cent) with many votes still to be counted.
The turnout by the Democratic coalition ensured that would not lose the popular vote as some had feared.
Obama’s winning alliance consists of minority voters (Black, Latino, and Asian) worried about immigration laws and Republican exclusivism; women passionate about reproductive rights and pay parity, and a young, urban, collegiate demographic unimpressed by the domestic Republican conservatism and international machismo.
News Source: thedailystar.net
