Barack Obama today won a historic election to get a secondterm as US President, overcoming a stiff challenge from Republican Mitt Romneydefying concerns over his handling of economy and anxiety over the future.
A votary of strong ties with India, 51-year-old Obama, thefirst black American to occupy the White House, scored what turned out to be acomfortable victory over Romney after a bitter and costly campaign running overmonths with his rivals attacking him on issues of unemployment and recession.
Disproving predictions of a narrow victory in a very tightrace, the incumbent won the election in crucial battleground states after aneck-and-neck race in the initial stages, getting 303 electoral votes against206 of Romney in a college of 535 votes.
Notwithstanding doubts over his ability to revive economyfrom the effects of the crisis, the worst after the Great Depression of 1930s,voters appeared to have chosen status quo leaving Democrats with control of theSenate and Republicans the House of Representatives.
What tilted the race in Obama's favour was the massive swinghe got from the victory in California, which has the largest number of 55electoral votes, and Ohio with 18. Till California was called Romney had ledover Obama.
Obama also walked away with wins in the swing states ofColorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Pollsters had even apprehended a tie after the Presidentialdebates and surveys, but in the ultimate analysis Obama got over 300 votes butnot anywhere near his 2008 score of 349.
After the networks declared Obama the winner, 65-year-oldRomney called him and congratulated him. "This is a time of greatchallenge for our nation. I pray the President will be successful in guidingour nation," he told his supporters.
The President reciprocated his sentiments and congratulatedhim on a hard-fought campaign.
In his speech to his cheering supporters in his campaignheadquarters in Chicago, Obama promised to work with leaders of both theparties to face the challenges ahead in creating new jobs, reducing deficit andreforming taxes.
Earlier, Obama tweeted to his supporters after his victory:"This happened because of you. Thank you."
Obama, born to a white American mother and Kenya-bornHarvard-educated economist father on August 4,1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, becomesonly the second Democrat after Bill Clinton to secure two White House termssince the World War-II.
The President paved the way to victory defending Democraticbastions in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Obama, who romped to power four years ago as an agent ofhope and change, secured his second term on the back of a fiercely negativecampaign.
He branded former Massachusetts Governor Romney as elite andindifferent to the middle class after the businessman-turned politiciansurprisingly outperformed him in the first of the three high-stake presidentialdebates.
The President campaigned offering a "fair shot" tothe middle class and to fulfil his pledge to end the war in Iraq.
Now, Obama will have to perform on the promise of hishistoric reforms of health care and Wall Street. He is also likely to lookabroad, especially the issue of thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Obama may have also been helped at the last minute whensuperstorm Sandy devastated the US East Coast, bringing out his skills intackling the aftermath.
