The final vote tally is in and the President's victory is significantly stronger than it first appeared on election night. Barack Obama is the first president
in 56 years to garner at least 51% of the popular vote in two consecutive elections. President Obama received 65.9 million votes and Mitt Romney received 60.9 million votes. In percentage terms that works out to 51.1% for Obama versus 47.2% for Romney. The 47% figure is kind of ironic for Mitt Romney because of the infamous 47% video which played a major role in the 2012 Presidential election.
The last President to achieve this feat was Dwight D. Eisenhower (1952 and 1956). There were a number of pundits who labeled the 2012 election as close and therefore did not provide President Obama with a mandate. I argue that his victory margin of 5 million votes during a period of 7.8% unemployment was a VERY convincing win. It was not really that close in the electoral college or the popular vote. It's a tough pill for the GOP to swallow, but they need to come to terms with the fact that their candidate and their policies were soundly rejected by a solid majority of voters.
