November 8, 2012 Edition

Obama was right.  Romney was wrong.  America’s young voters, minorities, women and moderates troop to the polls and push the Obama win, overcoming the Republican party’s strong base of white voters.  Barack Obama becomes the 44th American president, defeating Mitt Romney in Democratic strongholds and key battleground states.  Obama gets 303 electoral college votes to Romney’s 206 and wins the popular vote by at least 1.8 million.  Still, he’s got tough obstacles ahead: political gridlock, Iran’s nuclear threat and Syria.  On Wednesday, markets fall in early trade, America’s “fiscal cliff” another problem ahead.


Read and watch what happened on Rappler’s live event coverage.
Rappler’s Carmela Fonbuena says that before Obama went onstage for his victory speech, he sent an email to his supporters.

How did the Obama victory happen?  What predictions were right, and what were wrong?  What’s spin and what’s reality?  What does this show about America today?  These are only some of the questions answered as election results were coming in.  Politico outlines 12 takeaways, including the lingering negative impact of former president George W. Bush and a class divide which still exists.


Read more on Politico.

It was vintage Obama, the man who inspired Americans during the 2008 campaigns – an Obama largely missing during the 2012 electons.  Perhaps it was adjusting to playing defense as an incumbent rather than just charging forward.  Still, Obama’s acceptance speech brimmed with hope and called on Americans to unite against tough problems ahead. “For the United States of America, the best is yet to come,” he said. “I’ve never been more hopeful about our future.” 

Watch his speech or read it here—all on Rappler.

Voters in Maine and Maryland voted for same-sex marriage, a move that gay rights advocates called a historic turning point.  It is the first time that marriage for gay men and lesbians has been approved at the ballot, after being rejected by voters more than 30 times before.  Marijuana use was also legalized in at least 2 states – in Colorado and Washington.


Read more on the New York Times and on Rappler.

Although the markets initially reacted negatively, leaders in Asia see stability in an Obama win.  It gives the US the chance to flesh out its policy of the Asian pivot and to work out the balance of power with China, which goes through its own, very different leadership transition within days of the US elections.  China became a political football between the Obama and Romney, leaving relations between the two countries slightly bruised and in need of attention.  Still, China sent its congratulations to Obama and said it was looking forward to a better future.  Most markets ended slightly higher Wednesday.


Read more on the Wall Street Journal. 

A once in a decade power transfer begins in China Thursday with the opening of it’s 18th Congress.  President Hu Jintao opens the congress with a work report on achievements and future goals.  The 18th party Congress, says its spokesman, “will be one of great importance, when China is in a crucial stage of building a modern and prosperous society in all respects, taking on reform and opening up, and accelerating the transformation of the growth pattern.”  This is a China growing into its own skin and facing its own deep-seated problems, including corruption.


Read more on the BBC and CNN, and watch Rappler’s Editor-at-large Marites Vitug’s vlog about corruption in China.

Nate Silver, a stats whiz, who came up with an algorithmic model for his election statistics blog, fivethirtyeight.com, beat the pundits and called the elections accurately in all 50 states.  His blog is licensed and hosted by the New York Times since 2010.  It gives an electoral vote estimate and the probability of each candidate winning for each state is given.  In 2008, Silver’s model predicted 49 out of 50 states.  On Monday, traffic on his blog accounted for 20% of the New York Times’ traffic.  He is another big winner in the 2012 elections.


Read more on Mashable.

Remember the hologram in 2008?  In 2012, it’s the Empire State Building.  CNN promised a spectacular election coverage feature: “This occasion will mark the iconic Empire State Building’s first-ever use of their new custom LED panel technology, a state-of-the-art dynamic lighting system from Philips Color Kinetics that is unique to the Empire State Building and will allow the building’s facade and mast to change lighting scenes in real-time.  When CNN projects a winner of the presidential election, the tower lights of the Empire State Building will change color to all-blue or to all-red.”


Read more on Rappler.

Turkish officials announce they are looking into deploying Patriot missile batteries along the Turkey-Syria border, a move that could provide a safe-haven to Syrian rebels by creating a no-fly zone over northern Syria. Coming hours after the re-election of President Obama, the announcement raised speculation the United States and its allies were working on a more robust plan to deal with the 20-month-old conflict in Syria. Reports that British Prime Minister David Cameron will open direct lines of communication with Syrian rebels also fueled speculations. The developments come in the middle of escalating attacks by Syrian insurgents. The rebels blew up a judge and a judge who is also top Assad loyalist in his car-  the second high-profile killing of a Syrian official. The insurgents also intensified attacks by lobbing mortar shells at a neighborhood that houses central government offices and a military airfield.


Read more on the New York Times.

Puerto Ricans vote to become a US state in a non-binding referendum in elections Wednesday, November 7. The Carribbean island, now a self-governing US territory, was siezed by the US in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Turnout was 77 percento f hte 3.7 million population.


Read more on Rappler.