US elections: Did Obama re-election lead to rise of Trump? Remembering Obama vs Romney in 2012
The 2012 election result map indicated how Americans voted for Obama and Romney Photograph:( Others )
Story highlights
US presidential election 2012: In the 2012 US presidential election, the incumbent Democratic president Barack Obama faced Republican Mitt Romney. The election took place in the long shadow of the Great Recession. Economic recovery, Obama's healthcare reforms and foreign policy became key campaign issues. What were the consequences of the 2012 results?
US presidential election 2012: In the 2012 US presidential election, the incumbent Democratic president Barack Obama faced Republican Mitt Romney. The election took place in the long shadow of the Great Recession. Economic recovery, Obama's healthcare reforms and foreign policy became key campaign issues. What were the consequences of the 2012 results?
Barack Obama won the 2012 election, becoming the last Democrat president to serve two consecutive terms. However, his second term was marked by the rise of Donald Trump, who went on to become the Republican president, ousting the Democrats from power after eight years of Obama.
Many Americans loved the first African American president, with some even urging him to run again for a third term in 2016. But US presidents cannot have more than two terms, and Obama went on to campaign for the subsequent Democratic candidates, including Joe Biden, who was his vice president.
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In 2012, Obama was seeking a second term in the wake of the global financial crisis that started in late 2007 with the collapse of some major American banks, insurance firms and other financial institutions.
As the Great Reccession continued for the common people, the rich continued to become richer, which led to the Occupy Wall Street movement just a few months before the election.
Obama's Republcan rival was Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
The key issues in the 2012 election cycle were the recovery of the American economy, the landmark yet contentious healthcare reforms of Obama, and his foreign policy.
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Obama had passed the massive medical care reform called the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare. He also spent much of his first term stabilising the economy after the financial crisis of 2007-08 left behind by his Republican predecessor George W Bush.
Unemployment, which was above 8 per cent as of 2012 remained a key issue during the 2012 election, as the working class was still feeling the pinch from the financial crisis.
This made many question the economic policies of Obama in his first term.
Romney seized on this opportunity to attack Obama.
Hightlighting his private sector experience - he was the co-founder of investment firm Bain Capital - Ronmey argued that he can fix the economy.
With the campaign slogan 'Believe in America,' Romney focused on claiming that debt increased and job growth was slow during Obama's first term.
Obama's campaign, with the slogan 'Forward', mobilised supporters on the progress made during his presidency on women's rights, immigration reform and healthcare. He even took a pro-LGBTQ stance closer to election date.
But on the healthcare front, Obama was often cornered by Romney, who advocated repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
They sparred on these issues at debates, with Obama appearing to be on the backfoot in the first one. But he recovered and improved his performance in later debates.
Well into the last days of campaign, Obama appeared to be on a weak position but his emotional and rousing speeches and Demcratic party's massive ground-level surge campaign managed to convince most voters to give him four more years.
The 2012 election also cemented the role of technology, which was already used in the previous one. Data analytics was used as effectively by Obama campaign as grassroot voter mobilisation.
Romeny somehow did not have the same arsenal when it came to using technology, particularly social media outreach to young voters.
There was also an increase in early voting, which is believed to have helped Obama.
The election, held on 6 November 2012, saw better participation from minorities and youngsters, which also was to Obama's advantage.
Eventually, Obama won re-election by getting 332 electoral college votes as against 206 for Romney, and 51 per cent of the popular vote as against 47 per cent for the Republican.
But the election was, in many ways, a predictor of the fact that American electorate was getting slowly divided. If you look at the results map in this story, it is clear that red states and blue states were practically split through the middle of the nation. Obama won the more populous and coastal states where miniorities and immigrants live in large numbers. Romney won much of the north, middle America and conservative south, often described as the Bible Belt.
Obama did extremly well with youth, Latinos and Blacks, whereas white voters appear to have preferred Romney. In the second term of Obama, that division only worsened, including protests after police killings of Black people.
The emergence of migrant communities as voting blocs became an issue for many in the white majority, who gravitated towards a more rightwing approach opposing immigration, a sentiment captured and amplified by Donald Trump.
(With inputs from agencies)
