President Obama’s election strategy

President Obama won all the battle ground states, which secured him a second term in office. He won the Electoral College by 3332 votes to Mitt Romney’s 206- almost as convincing a victory as in 2008. But he won the popular vote by a much diminished 2.4 percentage point, whole Republicans easily retained control of the House of Representatives. So after all that campaigning, we are back to where we started; A republican majority in the House, a democratic majority in the senate. As in 2000 and 2004, America seems split right down the middle.

On the eve of the election, things looked pretty good for Romney, as Obama was polling below 50%, and had a lead of less than a point. There was much speculation that the result would be very close in the battle ground states such as Ohio to leave the outcome in doubt for many hours after the polls closed. In the end, however, the result was clear within a few hours. President Obama lost only two sates that he had won during the 2008 election: Indiana and North Carolina. Like 2008, President Obama’s advantage largely came from young women, minorities, the educated and the young. It was minorities who boosted President Obama the most. He triumphed among both Asians and Hispanic. Black voters voted for him by almost the same margin as they did last time. And minorities constituted a bigger share of the electorate: 28% compared to 26% in 2008.

I believe it was President Obama’s campaign strategies that won him the election. Over the course of his presidency, he has introduced policies designed to appeal to each of his voter groups. He courted the young by battling with Republicans in Congress to increase the number of government-backed student loans. For women, he advertised the first bill he signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which makes it easier for them to sue for wage discrimination. He also appeased them by the clause in his health reforms requiring insurers to provide contraception to policy-holders at no extra cost. To get Latina votes, he granted a pardon from deportation to certain illegal immigrants who had arrived as children. To repair his losses among the white working class, he highlighted his support for the government-backed bail-out of the car industry. To get the gay votes, he put an end to the long-standing policy of expelling openly gay soldiers from the armed force and expressed personal support for gay marriage.