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2012 U.S. presidential election

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Obama is sentenced to four more years as president. The poor man.

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The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election took place on Tuesday, 6 November, 2012. Democratic President Barack Obama won a second term after defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The nearest third party challenger in terms of votes was Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.

Romney promised to buy more ships, Obama believed we had enough ships. That was literally their only disagreement.

Major issues[edit]

The economy[edit]

The years leading up to the 2012 election were an absolute economic shitstorm that helped lead to a Democratic landslide in 2008, growing worse with the eurozone crisis.

The wars[edit]

Contrary to every election over the past 60 years, the Republicans couldn't attack their opponent for being "soft" on national security. The reason being that Obama was one of the most hawkish Democrats, with major victories such as the killing of Osama bin Laden. Combined with the increasing dislike of the Afghanistan War in the public and its future end date, foreign policy was not a major issue, unlike previous elections.

God, guns, and gays[edit]

Social issues are often more important when the economy is healthy, and white Christians can go back to telling other people how to live. Romney, a former social liberal, once claimed to be more for gay rights than Ted Kennedy but later edged himself to the right on social issues.

Health care[edit]

The major provisions of Obamacare would not come into effect until 2014 and a major SCOTUS case that could help define how people view his strength as a president, ultimately upheld the law in a 5-4 decision.

Romney passed a very similar health care bill while governor of Massachusetts. During the health care debates of 2009-2010, he strongly advocated for such a system to be instated nationally, making it difficult for him to attack the President's own health care plan. (Republicans still hate him for that.) Of course, this didn't stop Romney from criticizing Romneycare Obamacare and hoping nobody noticed.

Democratic Party[edit]

Barack Obama
Age: 58
44th President of the USA
Advantages: The sitting President; charismatic and eloquent; extremely strong fundraising; had an unparalleled field operation in 2008; issued the order to kill Osama bin Laden; Sizable numbers of Republicans prefer Obama to the alternative,[2] as do ordinary voters.[3] An improving economy.[4]
Disadvantages: Obama's historically mixed approval ratings returned once the bump that came from the killing of bin Laden subsided. While Obama's popularity increased around February 2012, public opinion was volatile, especially given the tentative nature of the economic recovery.[3] Obama disappointed many left-wing supporters with such policies as keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay open, re-signing PATRIOT, a controversial drone warfare program, and also by lacking the Jedi powers that would have been necessary to make the Republican bloc in the Senate not filibuster any bill to create anything resembling universal health care. He couldn't rely again on his 2008 campaign tactics, and was primarily judged on the state of what has been a remarkably sluggish economy.

Primary challengers[edit]

No notable Democrats came forth to challenge Obama for the nomination, although anti-abortionist Randall Terry, formerly active in the Constitution Party and who had also run for office as a Republican, entered the Democratic primaries against Obama mainly in order to run graphic pro-life ads.[5] He ran strongest in Oklahoma and carried several counties. Likewise, a handful of other obscure primary candidates had strong showings and carried a number of counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Virginia. One such candidate, convicted felon Keith Judd, got a whopping 40% of the West Virginia primary vote and won 10 of the state's counties – all while serving a 210-month sentence in federal prison in Texas.[6] "None of the above" ran strongly in Alabama and Kentucky. But those are all states where Obama is unpopular among some rank-and-file Democrats, many of whom are social conservatives, and there were no serious threats to his renomination.

Republican Party[edit]

Mitt Romney by Gage Skidmore 3.jpg
Mitt Romney
Age: 72, appears 40 thanks to hair dye.
Former governor of Massachusetts
Advantages: He had some appeal to moderates and independents, and it was hoped that he could put Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, major states that the Republicans have not won in decades, into play. He had significant experience in both business and as Massachusetts governor. Had access to substantial funding both because of his own wealth and the support of super-PACs, and had been outraising Obama's campaign for quite some time.[7] VP choice Paul Ryan was meant to bring over disaffected conservatives due to his "experience" with economic policy.
Disadvantages: He was too moderate for many Republicans, particularly in the existing political climate. He had flip-flopped on several key conservative issues (notably abortion), and his Mormon faith somewhat also hurt him with the Religious Right. His state health care plan for Massachusetts ("Romneycare") looked an awful lot like "Obamacare." He was derided by some as a man who "looks like the guy who laid you off" (and his company, Bain Capital, a typical private equity firm, actually did "downsize" many employees at its targets). Massachusetts ranked poorly in job creation during his time as Governor.[8]

Primary challengers[edit]

No one actually liked him, although his programmers have learned well how to simulate human emotion.

Romney never really captured the hearts of the Republican faithful. His massive war chest, however, meant that his eventual triumph was never in doubt. Starting in the summer of 2011, a number of fringe candidates enjoyed a few weeks as the frontrunner: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and even Rick Santorum positioned themselves as the "not-Romney" of the moment. Of the challengers, Ron Paul, with a fervent base of followers disconnected from GOP orthodoxy, survived the longest; he officially suspended his campaign in May.

Libertarian Party[edit]

  • Gary Johnson - official nominee. Former Republican governor of New Mexico.

Other parties and independents[edit]

Theoretically could have won (ballot access to over 270 electoral votes)[edit]

Green Party[edit]

Americans Elect[edit]

There were several candidates attempting to win the Americans Elect nomination which was to have been conducted entirely online. On May 15, 2012, Americans Elect announced they were declining to nominate anyone, declaring no candidate had met the threshold for support.[9]

Had ballot access to fewer than 270 electoral votes[edit]

Constitution Party[edit]

  • Virgil Goode - official nominee. Former U.S. Congressman from Virginia, who was in Congress as a Democrat, an independent, and lastly a Republican. What was yet another party switch to him?

Prohibition Party[edit]

  • Jack Fellure - official nominee. Topping the list of reasons why you should have voted for Jack Fellure is "My Presidential Campaign Platform is the Authorized 1611 King James Bible. God Almighty wrote that Book as the supreme constitution and absolute authority..." and you know you don't want to read any more.

Assorted oddities[edit]


People will long remember Mitt Romney’s politically tone-deaf attack on half the nation’s population for being losers, leeches, and moochers because he accurately articulated the right-wing worldview.
—Bruce Bartlett[10]

In general, the problems with Romney had to do with who he was, not how he campaigned. In 2012, the scars of the recession were still fresh, and a guy whose net worth was $250m and who had come up through Bain Capital was going to be a hard sell regardless. Add to the fact that his career up to that point had been as a centrist governor in a blue state, and his positions were closer to Pelosi's than Boehner's.

Romney campaigned relatively well, with no major missteps aside from the 47 percent thing. But he just wasn't the kind of candidate that was going to beat Obama in the first place. He changed his position multiple times on social issues, and much of his campaign relied on the assumption that the economy would stay stagnant. Because of how complex the economy is, this essentially left his campaign up to chance.

Adding insult to injury, he had conspicuous bank accounts in several tax havens and was sitting upon years of tax returns. While he did release summaries of the other years, none of these disclosed his effective tax rates, a major sticking point against his campaign. While VP nominees usually "balance out" a ticket (like a fiscal conservative running with a religious conservative), Ryan spelled doom for votes in (at least) Florida[11] as he was a former Randroid and wasn't particularly known for his social conservatism either. His proposal to voucherize Medicare wasn't popular across the political spectrum;[12] Romney's plan for Medicare was nearly identical as well.

And never — ever — try to make "we are the 53 percent" a talking point. And defunding PBS.[13] And pissing off the entire United Kingdom.

External links[edit]


United States 2012 presidential election articles on RationalWiki
Winner: Barack Obama (incumbent)