Reasons Why Obama Won!

It is almost inevitable that an examination of the US elections will have to be made in various news media, particularly on such a site like Nigeriaworld.com, which has hosted a lot of discussions about the elections several months before the real event.

The general consensus among Nigerian contributors seemed to favor the incumbent, President Barack Obama, over his rival, Mitt Romney, the former governor of the state of Massachusetts. However, a few number of contributors exhibited their preference for Governor Romney.

In this piece, I shall try to identify those factors that allowed Barack Obama to prevail over his opponent. It is instructive to say at this juncture that by winning re-election, Obama has set a record for the president that won re-election with the highest unemployment rate at the time of the election. His re-election also becomes the first time since1820 in the history of presidential elections in the United States, that three presidents would win re-elections three times successively.

First in my opinion, of those factors that contributed to make Barack a two-term president, is his own character and personality. Even when it was clear that the economy was not moving in the direction he would want it to move, his popularity rating remained high. His sincerity was not in doubt. He never deceived Americans about where he was trying to take them.

One can contrast this with the character of his opponent, Mitt Romney. He changed his stand on so many crucial issues like women's reproductive rights, gun control, health care reform, foreign policy with particular reference to Syria and Iran. People started calling him Myth Romney. He was derided by Obama with the epithet Romnesia, to describe a condition resulting from deliberate forgetfulness of one's political stands in order to achieve political gain. During the Republican primaries, he called himself a conservative, but while debating Obama, he tried to give the impression of being a centrist. Of course, he did not fool anybody.

The choice of Mitt Romney himself as the flag bearer of the Republicans was, in the opinion of many observers, a faux-pas. Though he emerged from a gruelling primary election process, those of us who are Democrats heaved a sigh of relief that it was Romney that emerged the nominee of the party. Had it been John Huntsman or even Rick Santorum, it could have been a different story. We should not forget that the Republican Party has a knack for shooting itself in the foot. This occurred on so many occasions during the campaign. Romney himself made the infamous 47 percent statement in which he derided forty-seven percent of Americans as free-loaders who are bound to vote for Obama because they are ingratiated to him for giving them welfare.

Romney's faith and religion of Mormonism also did not help him at all. Up till the time of the elections, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was regarded as a cult by mainstream America. In fact, the grandfather of evangelicals in the US, Billy Graham removed Mormonism from his list of cults when Romney visited him just before he received the official nomination of the party. This act was intended to enable hard-core evangelicals to view Romney as an acceptable candidate.

The choice of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate was another false step. It was rumored that Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey was high on the list of potential nominees for the post. However, in an attempt to pacify the extreme right wing of the party, Romney decided to nominate Ryan who had proposed a very unpopular budget that would require senior citizens to be given vouchers at the expense of losing their Medicare benefits. This obviously did not go down well with senior citizens who constitute a sold voting block.

President Bill Clinton gave a one-in-a-lifetime performance during the Democratic National Convention on behalf of Obama. He continued to contribute by campaigning vigorously for Obama in various swing states like Florida, Ohio, Virginia etc. Contrast this to the no-show by President Bush. It was reported that Bush was deliberately told to stay away from the Republican National Convention and to avoid campaigning for Romney because Republicans did not want to remind Americans of the connection between the economy that Obama inherited and the one Bush left behind. What a clever design!

The charisma of Michelle Obama was never in doubt. In fact, her popularity was always well above that of her husband at all times. Merge this with her extraordinary speech at the Democratic Convention, then you have a potent weapon in your armoury. It is therefore not surprising that she was able to catalyse the overwhelming lead that her husband had over the women's vote. The women's vote was crucial in that they form a solid voting block. They also appreciate the fact that Obama took women's interest to his heart. For example, his very first legislation signed into law was to enable women earn the same pay with men for equal work. I am referring to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

The most crucial piece of legislation in Obama's first term is the Affordable Health Care Act, derisively called Obama Care by his opponents. This is a piece of legislation that is designed to ensure that almost all Americans have access to the excellent health care that is available in the country, which, in my opinion is second to none in the world. It is a shame that one out of seven Americans do not have access to this fantastic service just because they are poor. Women, being at the receiving end of most of this deficient access, appreciate the fact that Obama was in a way, fighting on their behalf. Not surprisingly, they voted for him in large numbers by a margin of

The performance of Obama in the three presidential debates contributed to the eventual outcome of the election. Just before the first debate, Obama was leading comfortably in the opinion polls. After the first debate in which Obama performed in a lackluster manner, Romney jumped ahead. However, after the second and third debates, Obama regained his mojo and his rating in the opinion polls continued to climb up.

We should not forget that Obama has exceptional organizational skills : he was a community organizer in Chicago prior to going to the US Senate. He had the benefit of having access to the services of labor unions like the Teachers' Union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) etc. His campaign organization had so many operatives on the ground practically in each State of the Union. Even in states where he has minimal support, he still maintained a solid presence.

The contribution of Blacks and Latinos to Obama's success cannot be over-emphasized. This was partially made possible due to the attitude adopted by the Republican Party towards these minorities. With particular reference to the issue of immigration which disproportionately affects Hispanics more than any other group, the approach by the Republicans left much to be desired. The way the Republicans wanted to solve this problem was to make life so difficult for these immigrants that they would ''self deport''. How they want to do this for twelve million people boggles the mind of any sane person.

The overall job performance by the president, despite the obstacles put in his way by Republicans was commendable. This, coupled with the slowly but surely improving economy, convinced the majority of Americans to give him another try. For example, the housing market is on the rise, more jobs are being created monthly and the unemployment figures are going to go down soon. To bring the obstructionist practices of the Republican legislators into proper perspective, Obama's legislative proposals were filibustered one hundred and twelve times in his less than four years in office, while Bush had only sixty filibusters in his eight years in office!

The bail-out of the auto industry by President Obama in the very beginning of his term turned out to be one of the key reasons for his re-election. As fate would have it, his opponent's approach was to let the industry go bankrupt! Michigan and Ohio states did not forget who was in their camp.

He performed well in a category that is often the prerogative of Republicans: national defense. He ordered the killing of America's most bitter foe, Osama Bin Laden. In doing this, he removed from Republicans, one of their often touted credentials, that they and they alone, are capable of protecting the safety of the country.

Finally, providence played a role in the re-election of Mr. Obama. When Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast, nobody knew that it would contribute towards the elections. The response of Mr. Obama was awesome, particularly when compared to that of Mr. Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This was widely acknowledged by the governor of the state of New Jersey, who is a close ally of Mr. Romney. In fact, Chris Christie gave the keynote address at the Republican National Convention at which he wholeheartedly endorsed Romney. For him to shower so many accolades on Obama was too much for the hard core Republicans who started to accuse Christie of being a traitor! Not surprisingly, Obama got an unexpected bump in the polls which he did not relinquish until the day of the election. This was the October surprise that is so much dreaded, yet awaited by Americans just before the elections.

Having said all this, it is my hope and prayer that Mr. Obama should be able to govern peacefully in the next four years; that the United States would be able to continue to provide the global leadership role it has entrusted upon itself and that his opponents in the Republican Party would come to realize that unnecessary opposition is not in line with American values.

Written by Dapo Odumosu, M.D.