Every re-elected president since Andrew Jackson has won with an increased popular vote percentage. Barack Obama didn't. He won 53 to 46 percent in 2008. His numbers as I write are 50 to 48 percent over Mitt Romney. That could go up to 51 to 48 percent when California finishes its count, which took five weeks in 2008.
Obama owes most of his electoral vote majority of 332 to negative campaigning. His strategists barraged the target states of Florida, Ohio and Virginia with attack ads on Romney for months.
The ads took a toll. Preliminary figures show that outside the eight clear target states, Obama's percentage declined by 2.8 points. In the firewall states, it was down only 1.4 and in five other target states down only 2.1.
Read the whole thing. --TS
Given that Barone predicted a Romney landslide, I'm rather disinclined to entertain his explanations for the outcome.
Posted by: Curmudgeonly Ex-Clerk | November 11, 2012 at 10:58 AM
True, but it's a lot easier to explain the past than predict the future.
Posted by: Tom Smith | November 11, 2012 at 11:42 AM
You don't say. How dare Obama not win by more than 7.2% of the vote! The fact that he didn't totally deligitimizes this victory. I mean, Bush winning the vote by 2.4% in his re-election bid was WAY more impressive than this. You conservatives have such airtight ways of explaining things. Did you know that like 6-straight Republicans had won the presidency on November 6th, until THIS year? What does it all mean?!
Posted by: Brightcoast.wordpress.com | November 11, 2012 at 01:11 PM
I'd say it means your a dumbass. However, it only matters that he won. The Democrats own the policy, the failure and the ineptitude. Just as FDR and his policies prolonged the depression, Obama and his policies will prolong this recession/depression.
Posted by: Seamus me boy | November 11, 2012 at 02:07 PM
Did you know, Obama's only the 4th President in the past century to win twice with over 50% of the vote? Oh yeah, and it's "you're."
Posted by: Brightcoast.wordpress.com | November 12, 2012 at 05:47 PM
Obama won re-election with a greater margin than Bush, and I recall that the conservative argument in that election was that Bush won significant "political capital;" therefore, does Obama have greater political capital than Obama?
Posted by: Weak argument | November 13, 2012 at 03:49 PM