And I think he's going to do that for political reasons. I've been making that prediction. Let's see what happens. Many of my predictions, as you know better than anybody have come true. 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.
They added two to their ranks of governors, leaving them in control of the executive in 31 states. They also won majorities in ten additional state legislative chambers, giving them control of 67 of The midterm election guaranteed that Obama spent the last two years of his presidency with a Republican Congress. Although the 22nd Amendment barred Obama from seeking a third term as president in , he was intensely interested in seeing a Democrat succeed him, especially because all of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination promised to seek the repeal of major parts of his legislative legacy if one of them was elected.
Obama did not endorse either of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, but he clearly favored Clinton as the most electable and privately discouraged Vice President Biden from entering the contest for fear of dividing his supporters between Biden and Clinton.
In the fall campaign, Obama campaigned ardently in multiple battleground states for Clinton and against the Republican nominee, Donald J. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W.
Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center. University of Virginia Miller Center. His daily coronavirus taskforce briefings seldom dwell on the monumental loss of life and human tragedy at the heart of the pandemic. The two presidents have always been polar opposites. Obama was a very controlled person. He would have given you the facts and nothing more.
He would have been perfect for this. Obama did cry, as any human being would after children were killed, but he was still able to speak carefully and in complete sentences. Can you ever remember Obama speaking gibberish? Typically in national emergencies, presidents make contact with their predecessors. All five living former presidents came together to raise funds for hurricane relief in And this week, when Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary, he speculated on when Obama will endorse Biden.
Few would disagree with that assertion. Trump is not alone in wondering why Obama has not already endorsed Biden. But it is not the first time: in , Obama reportedly decided Hillary Clinton should be his successor and helped steer Biden away from running.
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