President Obama wins re-election: What it means

Voters give Obama a second term, despite the fact that the unemployment rate remains near 8 percent

President Obama
(Image credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Obama has won another four years, extending a historic tenure as the nation's first black president. The president has been called the winner in several key swing states, including Ohio, Iowa, and Wisconsin, making it all but certain that Mitt Romney has hit a brick wall in his bid to cross the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

Obama lost some states he won in 2008, including Indiana and North Carolina, but his winning coalition — largely composed of liberal whites, blacks, Latinos, younger voters, and moderate white women — held up for the most part, a stunning accomplishment given that the national unemployment rate remains at 7.9 percent and the economy is still struggling in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In fact, no president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has won re-election with an unemployment rate that high.

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