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| US election verdict: now the president must fulfil the promise of four years ago | US election verdict: now the president must fulfil the promise of four years ago |
| (5 months later) | |
| "President Obama's dramatic re-election victory was not a sign that a fractured nation had finally come together on election day," said the New York Times. "But it was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, healthcare reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction – and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. It was a repudiation of Reagan-era bromides about tax-cutting and trickle-down economics, and of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation. | "President Obama's dramatic re-election victory was not a sign that a fractured nation had finally come together on election day," said the New York Times. "But it was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, healthcare reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction – and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. It was a repudiation of Reagan-era bromides about tax-cutting and trickle-down economics, and of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation. |
| "The president's victory depended heavily on midwestern 'rust belt' states like Ohio, where the bailout of the auto industry – which Mr Obama engineered and Mr Romney opposed – proved widely popular for the simple reason that it worked." | "The president's victory depended heavily on midwestern 'rust belt' states like Ohio, where the bailout of the auto industry – which Mr Obama engineered and Mr Romney opposed – proved widely popular for the simple reason that it worked." |
| For the Washington Post, "the real measure of Mr Obama's success, and the ultimate assessment of his presidential tenure, will be in whether, in a second term, he can fulfil some of the promise that made Americans so excited about his candidacy four years ago. Will an Obama second term allow him to transcend the ideological divides that he vowed to bridge but instead found so daunting? | For the Washington Post, "the real measure of Mr Obama's success, and the ultimate assessment of his presidential tenure, will be in whether, in a second term, he can fulfil some of the promise that made Americans so excited about his candidacy four years ago. Will an Obama second term allow him to transcend the ideological divides that he vowed to bridge but instead found so daunting? |
| "That is a tough order in a partisan age and with a divided, gridlocked Congress; there is no indication that the intransigence Mr Obama encountered from the opposition party will diminish. But Mr Obama has had four years of seasoning; one question is whether he can demonstrate the political canniness and legislative finesse that too often eluded him during the first term." | "That is a tough order in a partisan age and with a divided, gridlocked Congress; there is no indication that the intransigence Mr Obama encountered from the opposition party will diminish. But Mr Obama has had four years of seasoning; one question is whether he can demonstrate the political canniness and legislative finesse that too often eluded him during the first term." |
| The Post urges the president to show more bravery "to take on issues he ducked the first time around: reforming entitlements, particularly Medicare, and reducing the unsustainable debt". He must persuade "a dug-in Republican party of the need for increased tax revenue not based on the wishful assumption of faster economic growth." | The Post urges the president to show more bravery "to take on issues he ducked the first time around: reforming entitlements, particularly Medicare, and reducing the unsustainable debt". He must persuade "a dug-in Republican party of the need for increased tax revenue not based on the wishful assumption of faster economic growth." |
| Comprehensive immigration reform and tackling climate change are other priorities, says the Post. On foreign policy, "the Iranian nuclear programme will pose a fateful challenge, possibly within months. Mr Obama will have to ensure that gains in Afghanistan and Iraq are not erased in the aftermath of US troop withdrawals. His dithering in Syria as 30,000 civilians have been massacred is a particular blot on his first-term record, one for which he could begin to make amends in the second." | Comprehensive immigration reform and tackling climate change are other priorities, says the Post. On foreign policy, "the Iranian nuclear programme will pose a fateful challenge, possibly within months. Mr Obama will have to ensure that gains in Afghanistan and Iraq are not erased in the aftermath of US troop withdrawals. His dithering in Syria as 30,000 civilians have been massacred is a particular blot on his first-term record, one for which he could begin to make amends in the second." |
| The Wall Street Journal was scathing. "Given that second presidential terms are rarely better than the first, this is best described as the voters doubling down on hope over experience. | The Wall Street Journal was scathing. "Given that second presidential terms are rarely better than the first, this is best described as the voters doubling down on hope over experience. |
| "Mr Obama's campaign stitched together a shrunken but still decisive version of his 2008 coalition – single women, the young and culturally liberal, government and other unions workers, and especially minority voters. | "Mr Obama's campaign stitched together a shrunken but still decisive version of his 2008 coalition – single women, the young and culturally liberal, government and other unions workers, and especially minority voters. |
| "He said little during the campaign about his first term and even less about his plans for a second. Instead his strategy was to portray Mitt Romney as a plutocrat and intolerant threat to each of those voting blocs. No contraception for women. No green cards for immigrants. A return to Jim Crow via voter ID laws. No Pell grants for college. This was all a caricature even by the standards of modern politics. But it worked with brutal efficiency – the definition of winning ugly … | "He said little during the campaign about his first term and even less about his plans for a second. Instead his strategy was to portray Mitt Romney as a plutocrat and intolerant threat to each of those voting blocs. No contraception for women. No green cards for immigrants. A return to Jim Crow via voter ID laws. No Pell grants for college. This was all a caricature even by the standards of modern politics. But it worked with brutal efficiency – the definition of winning ugly … |
| "Mr Obama will now have to govern the America he so relentlessly sought to divide – and without a mandate beyond the powers of the presidency." | "Mr Obama will now have to govern the America he so relentlessly sought to divide – and without a mandate beyond the powers of the presidency." |
| The Los Angeles Times predicted a tough road. "He won a second term despite stubbornly high unemployment, painfully slow economic growth and widespread unease about the country's future. It's tempting to say that his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, was a weak candidate whose positions on important issues were either too vague or too changeable to persuade voters. But Obama was more than just the better campaigner. He earned re-election by keeping the country from falling into a depression and persuading Congress to enact vital reforms to healthcare and the financial industry. And the path forward he laid out was far more reasonable than Romney's too-good-to-be-true promise to shrink the deficit while cutting tax rates and pumping more dollars into the Pentagon." | The Los Angeles Times predicted a tough road. "He won a second term despite stubbornly high unemployment, painfully slow economic growth and widespread unease about the country's future. It's tempting to say that his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, was a weak candidate whose positions on important issues were either too vague or too changeable to persuade voters. But Obama was more than just the better campaigner. He earned re-election by keeping the country from falling into a depression and persuading Congress to enact vital reforms to healthcare and the financial industry. And the path forward he laid out was far more reasonable than Romney's too-good-to-be-true promise to shrink the deficit while cutting tax rates and pumping more dollars into the Pentagon." |
| The Guardian said: "His victory wasn't big. It wasn't pretty. It didn't break the mould. It certainly wasn't inspirational in the way that his win in 2008 was. In places it was wafer-thin. But it was a US presidential win all the same. And the win in 2012 matters just as much as the earlier win did in 2008. In difficult times, it is even, arguably, a greater political achievement. Mr Obama's win is good for Americans, good for America, and good for the world." | The Guardian said: "His victory wasn't big. It wasn't pretty. It didn't break the mould. It certainly wasn't inspirational in the way that his win in 2008 was. In places it was wafer-thin. But it was a US presidential win all the same. And the win in 2012 matters just as much as the earlier win did in 2008. In difficult times, it is even, arguably, a greater political achievement. Mr Obama's win is good for Americans, good for America, and good for the world." |
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