| | November 07, 2012 | | FLASHBACK Floridians must really love attention. President Obama won the election decisively, but the race in Florida remained too close to call. At dawn on Wednesday, Obama was leading the state by 0.53 percentage points, or 45,000 votes, out of a total of 8.27 million, with 99 percent of the votes counted—but the head of elections for Florida's Miami-Dade County said final results would not be available until Wednesday afternoon. The county accounts for 10 percent of the state's 12 million voters. The Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections blamed "an extremely high volume of absentee ballots" and long lines that kept some polls open for hours after the official closing time. FORWARD In front of a crowd of thousands of dancing, flag-waving supporters, the newly minted two-term president thanked the country for reelecting him to the Oval Office for four more years. "The task of perfecting our union moves forward," he said. "It moves forward because of you." Obama congratulated Romney for a hard fought campaign, and pledged to sit down with the former governor to "how we can move this country forward." He also gave shout-outs to his wife, Michelle ("I've never loved you more"), his daughters ("one dog is probably enough"), and his VP, Joe Biden ("America's happy warrior"). And he promised to make good on his campaign slogan, "That is where we need to go…Forward," he said, mentioning the ending war and recovering economy. "For the United States of America, the best is yet to come…I've never been more hopeful about our future." Interestingly, after Romney called Obama to concede, the president called Bill Clinton to thank him for his help. ALL OVER That's a wrap. After more than 17 months of campaigning, a mostly unemotional Mitt Romney conceded the presidency to Barack Obama on Tuesday night, as networks gave the incumbent an 100 electoral vote lead. Speaking to supporters in Boston, the former Massachusetts governor—who earlier in the night said that he had only prepared a 1,118-word victory speech—said that he wished the president well. "This is a time of great challenges for America," Romney said. Thanking running mate Paul Ryan and his wife Ann, Romney called his campaign an unprecedented effort for the GOP. "The nation as you know is at a critical point," Romney said. "Our leaders have to reach across the aisle." | |
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