I'm very surprised Obama won. It is amazing to me how accurate the polls were. What is surprising to me is a majority of the country (assuming Obama wins the popular vote) are happy with the president given the state and direction of the country. The right direction/ wrong direction polls are -25%. Either that poll is not accurate or the people just weren't impressed with the alternative.

The main issue is the economy. Without economic growth, you don't have income and without income government can not do all these things both Romney and Obama have promised.

Neither had/ has an impressive plan to deal with the deep issues the economy faces. Obama has less of a grasp of the issue. How can you be optimistic about government's ability to solve our problems when it lacks the finances to do anything? I suspect his second term will be much like Reagan's. No great splashes but just muddling along.

Happy Days are again...think this was projected 6 mo ago...wake up..SC;...work w/ BO...

BTW liz warren will,be thenext president...

Golly, just think Elizabeth Warren as the first native American president. That's more exciting than BHO. Yippee!

My comments are short and sweet.
1. For another 4 years I have NO president. There is a resident in the whitehouse but he is not my president.
2. If I should meet anyone over the next 4 years who has to tell me about this resident in the whitehouse, I will let them know in the saltiest of words what I think of him and them and kindly inform them to stay out of my life. That goes for ANYONE
3. I now know of 26 states that I will never ever visit in my lifetime
4.I can only hope that by 2016 there is enough left of what was the US that ii is worth livinig here. If I did not want Greece or a third rate USA, or did not want sharia law, or did not want communism/socialism/fascism, or did want to see the continuation of a democratic in Israel, or did not want to be the victim of a Death Panel for healthcare, I may be sorely disappointed

Happy Days? If you call the last four years happy, then I guess they are here again. One half of the country will get what it asked for, but the rest of us can only shake our heads and wonder how someone with that kind of record could get reelected. I listened to his victory speech and it had a real familiar ring to it. Oblah Blah and a bunch of political rhetoric that sounds so good when you are making grandiose speeches, but he didn't deliver in the last four years on the promises he made in 2008. He just divided the country between the classes, races, and groups. He's doing just what a "community organizer" does---creating chaos to gain power. I bet we don't hear anything more about the Benghazi scandal with all the reelection celebrating and back slapping. It will be conveniently swept under the rug with the other mayhem his administration has caused just like Fast and Furious. I really don't want to say I told you so to the die-hard liberals who wouldn't see what was right in front of their noses, but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity. Based on what he has done so far, he is either completely incompetant or completely evil. It could be both.

The race was filled with negative campaigning on both sides, from President Obama attacking Romney’s business experience with Bain Capital to Romney lambasting Obama’s handling of the economy. Patch

The difference in the negative ads is that Obama attacked Romney personally and Romney was critizing Obama's policies. There is a big difference between the way a Democrat like Obama and a Republican like Romney run a political campaign. He doesn't try to destroy his opponent. An example is what Biden did to Judge Bork. It's a direct attack no holes barred, because they play by their own set of rules and the ends justify the means.

No matter how anyone feels or votes, it is time to put away the partisan politics and find common ground to move our country forward. We should not gloat or try to throw up roadblocks. The success of our great nation depends on all of us coming together for the greater good. The election is over. Let's heal this country's wounds not put salt in them and fight against each other.

I'm shocked Obama won. Now that the fog is clearing in my eyes, I think his victory was due to 2 primary things:

1) The economy has been improving. The right track wrong track figure was -45% at the start of 2012, -25% in September and The last survey was only -15%. The outlook has been improving throughout 2012.

2) Romney provided a weak alternative. He was badly beaten up in the primary, raising his negatives. Beating up the ultimate nominee of your party for 18 months makes no sense. Either the primary season needs to be shortened, or go back to just selecting an nominee. Let the democrats beat up your candidate. Don't do it yourself. Ryan was a bad choice, not even being able to deliver his home state. Romney's message was neither conservative or moderate. It just swing back and forth.In that sense the GOP needs to find itself. It really has not had a clear message since 1994 -- The Contract With America.

Obama and the dems run depends on economic growth. They have to be able to continue to pay for their expansion of liberalism (like Obamacare, giving those on government assistance free cell phones). The president has no economic policy other than deficit spending and printing of money. These are short-term fixes, not long-term solutions. See Argentina. I liken his economic policy to giving a marathon runner more and more speed to keep him running. It works in the short-run, but in the long-run eventually it hurts him and in the end explodes his heart.

It's a mistake to listen to the ramblings of self-proclaimed political experts.
The world's bettors knew Obama would win. For example, Paddy Power Plc (PAP), Ireland’s largest bookmaker, did not wait for election day and said it would pay out for an Obama victory two days before the election. The Dublin-based company said it was paying out more than 500,000 euros ($640,000) on Obama bets. “Paddy Power believes it’s a done deal and Obama is a nailed-on certainty to win a second term,” the company said in a statement on its website on November 4th, 2012. http://bit.ly/obamawon2012

In a way, the Republican faithful can look at this as an opportunity to save the party for future generations. They have to let the sensible voices within the party rise to the top to articulate a renewed conservative vision drowning out the more the shrill and radical voices that hurt the brand in this election cycle.

There is work to be done, and we just had an election with a clear choice and a solid electoral college majority.---Robert Kelly

There was work to done for the last four years, but Obama has concentrated on domestic policies above all else to the detriment of foreign and economic conditions. The electoral system is flawed when a candidate can win an election with less than 1000 popular votes. I don't see that as a clear choice when close to half the voters voted against him. I hope for the best, but I think we've all seen what he meant by change now and what effects it had on our country.

It has been the Republican goal to objectify people as "others." You could see it with the handling of Romney. When did we most hear about Romney was a Mormon? It was during the Republican primaries. Even if it was the repeated "Oh, the fact that he is a MORMON doesn't bother me;" it meant constantly making sure that his religion was at the front of every discussion, almost like a backhanded compliment; keeping it out there as a dog whistle because they knew that it struck a chord in the base.

Then when the national election was between Obama and Romney, the mention of his religion was rarely ever heard about again. What you mainly saw from Republicans were these same portrayals of Obama as some sort of "other." Actually, not even a singular "other," but objectifying him as some other religion, some other nationality, some other completely different political philosophy, etc. This is the strongest tool that the Republican party has to fight their political races and to divide the country by compartmentalizing people into these groups with varying and conflicting (and mostly fictitious) agendas.

For anybody who was spewing such vile rhetoric on sites like Patch, at family picnics or at the local pub, no matter the greater good that you perceived and used to justify it in your head, I think that today is a day for looking in the mirror as the whole Republican party ought to be doing right now. Yesterday, this great nation overwhelmingly rejected that way of thinking.

USA, RIP 11-6-12.

I don't think it is the demise of the US, it is just an acceleration of the decline. Obama's philosophy of expanding government even more to meet this and that need is more than we have the income to pay for. Over spending especially by him, and others before him and the US Congress leave the US few choices -- borrow more, tax more, print more money. All will continue to lower our standard of living over time -- it is an unavoidable economic law.

If you haven't been following Greece, just look no further than California. Read the facts below.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/decline-and-fall_662233.html

It is in decline and the rest of the country will follow in its wake, if we don't pull in government, and stop with the tax increases, the borrowing and overspending. I wasn't a big Romney fan, but Obama is making the situation worse.