A hurricane couldn’t stop it. Two billion dollars couldn’t buy it. A weak economy couldn’t swing it. Americans re-elected Barack Obama on Tuesday, affirming the goals of the President’s tumultuous first term and giving him a second. This wasn’t 2008. Not as many states went his way. Fewer of his supporters wept. This time, it wasn’t about change. By 10:45 p.m. E.T., gongs were ringing at Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago as key states were called for the incumbent. New Hampshire. Bong. Pennsylvania. Bong. Wisconsin. Bong. In Boston, home to Mitt Romney’s campaign, a glum crowd of Republicans began to thin. Half headed to the bars, the other half to the exits. A few hours later, it was all over. “I pray that the President will be successful in guiding our nation,” Romney told the crowd in a short, dignified concession speech. At McCormick Place in Chicago, Obama took his time addressing the nation that had extended his lease on the White House. “Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up. We have fought our way back,” he said. “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.” (PHOTOS: Obama defeats Romney) The election once looked as if it would turn on the U.S. economy, still experiencing aftershocks from the 2008 financial crisis. And maybe it did — just not in the way Republicans had planned. Romney’s blue-chip business background seemed the perfect credential with which to challenge Obama, who entered the White House just as the depths of the recession became apparent. But after catastrophic downturns in employment, consumer confidence and the housing market early in Obama’s first term, the economy stabilized in the past year. The result: a frustratingly slow but palpable recovery that gave an unlikely edge to the incumbent. The revitalization of the auto industry in particular, enabled by a 2009 bailout that Romney opposed, might have been the … Continue reading Four More Years: Obama Wins Re-election