Goodbye Chicago: President Obama and the first lady paused outside Air Force One to wave before heading back to Washington, DC.
Hello Friends!
President Barack Obama wasted little time yesterday as he headed back to Washington hours after celebrating his election victory in Chicago and securing a second term in the White House.
Fresh challenges lie ahead for the president as the stock market tumbled in response to his triumph at the polls over Mitt Romney and sabre-rattling from Republicans who demanded that he make good on his promise to work with both sides of the political aisle in the next four years.
Obama was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and their children Malia and Sasha as they departed the Windy City on Air Force One. They arrived in Washington at about 6.30pm and returned to the iconic building which has been their home for the last four years - and where they will remain for the next four.
Last night, he called for unity after setting out an optimistic vision of America's future in a rousing acceptance speech.
Not getting evicted: The First Family re-entered the house via a specially constructed walkway.
Iconic: The White House will remain home to the Obama family, rather than the Romneys.
He promised 'the best is yet to come' and said the fierce battle with Romney had made him a better president, vowing: 'I will return to the White House more determined and inspired than ever.'
In a speech that saw a return to the soaring rhetoric he has become known for since his election in 2008, Obama said he had ‘listened and learned’ from the American people during his campaign.
With his voice going hoarse at times, he said: 'Progress comes in fits and starts' and the road is littered with ‘difficult compromises.' But he said he enters the next four years with an 'economy recovering, a decade of war ending and a long campaign is over.'
He paid tribute to his opponent and hopes they can 'work together in the coming weeks.'
The GOP has indicated that they will hold him to it.
Cheers from the crowd: Before heading back to Washington, President Obama made a surprise visit to campaign headquarters to thank staff and hug campaign manager Jim Messina.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was frosty in his post-election remarks. 'The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term,' he said.
'Now it's time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House,' he continued, 'and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office.'
Republican House Speaker John Boehner added: Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Boehner said: 'Mr. President, this is your moment. We want you to lead... Let's find the common ground that has eluded us.'
While soul-searching and recriminations over what went wrong with the Romney campaign will dominate Republican debate in the coming months, there will also be a more forward-looking discussion over who might be the party's 2016 candidate.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Representative Paul Ryan, the losing vice-presidential nominee, and Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, are all frontrunners.
The possible nominees for next time around are closely linked to the Romney postmortem.
Romney lost Hispanics to Barack Obama by 69 points to 29 and blacks by 93 to six. Against almost all predictions outside the Obama campaign, the black vote remained steady at 13 per cent and the Hispanic vote rose to 10 per cent. After being portrayed as an extremist on abortion and fertility issues, Romney also lost women voters by 55 to 43 points.
Stuart Stevens, Romney's top strategist, points out that Romney lost Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado - his most likely path to a narrow victory - by just over 305,000 votes.
In the more immediate future, a package of huge tax hikes and spending cuts - known as the 'fiscal cliff' - is scheduled to take effect in the new year if the parties cannot come to a compromise.
Tired: Malia and Sasha Obama accompanied their parents on the trip from Chicago back to Washington.
Helping hand: Obama embraces Vice President Joe Biden on stage at his Chicago headquarters.
Team: Obama called Biden 'America's happy warrior' as he paid tribute to his role in the election campaign.
Meanwhile, the dollar rose and the Labor Department announced that the number of job openings waiting to be filled declined by 100,000 to 3.56 million from the prior month.
The figures show that the October jump in private payrolls, which was the biggest in eight months, may be difficult to sustain.
Before the president departed from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, he stopped at his campaign headquarters to formally thank his workers.
A source told Politico that Obama entered the room to a massive reception, with campaign workers giving the commander-in-chief a standing ovation
Broadcast networks called the 2012 election for Obama at 11:15pm as he swept the map with wins in the swing states of Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Virginia. The Florida count is still not official, though an Obama victory there is all but certain.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had an advantage of 46,000 votes - though news outlets were hesitant to declare him the winner in the Sunshine State, which has a notoriously close election history.
Big names in the Republican Party, including House Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, held on to their congressional seats easily as the party was set to keep control of the House of Representatives.
Paul Ryan was also re-elected as a congressman following a campaign he conducted at the same time as serving as Mitt Romney's running mate.
However, the Tea Party appeared to have lost its political strength, as conservative icon Allen West was unceremoniously booted out of Congress and former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann also appeared to be in danger of losing her seat.
On the Democratic side, controversial congressman Jesse Jackson Jr cruised to re-election despite spending most of the year in rehab following a struggle with depression, and declining to appear at any campaign events.
The Kennedy family also looked set to return to power as Joseph Kennedy III took the House seat in Massachusetts formerly held by long-serving congressman Barney Frank.
The Democrats also looked set to hold on to control of the Senate, as hard-fought races in Massachusetts and Connecticut led to victories for Elizabeth Warren, who unseated Scott Brown, and for Chris Murphy in his battle against former wrestling boss Linda McMahon.
Two of the most controversial GOP Senate candidates, Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana, lost their races following highly publicised remarks about rape.
Akin claimed that victims of 'legitimate rape' could not get pregnant, while Mourdock argued that pregnancies resulting from rape were 'something that God intended'. The former lost to Claire McAskill, while the latter was defeated by Joe Donnelly.
In addition to the congressional races, a number of divisive ballot measures were also voted upon - same-sex marriage was legalized in Maine, Maryland and Washington, while marijuana was decriminalized in Colorado and Washington.
Victory: Barack Obama tweeted this picture of himself with his wife Michelle shortly after being declared the winner of the 2012 presidential election.
Culled from The Daily Mail UK.
xoxo
Simply Cheska...
No comments:
Post a Comment