US media credit Obama victory to campaign strategy

Washington: With headlines simply saying "Obama Wins" to just "Second Term", the American media greeted Barack Obama`s re-election as president by giving credit to his team`s campaign strategy.

The media narrative in most major news outlets` reports and analyses, however, also contrasts the president`s win last night with his 2008 run, with some noting that how much of his appeal he had lost since then. Most analysts credit similar factors for Obama`s win, including demographic trends favouring Democrats and the prolonged negative campaign waged against Mitt Romney in swing states, according to the Political Bulletin, a political news aggregating site. At the same time, many newspaper reports emphasised that the president`s victory came despite persistently poor economic conditions over the past four years. "A Nation Moving Further Apart," said USA Today, offering a summary representative of much of media coverage. "The American electorate split in two Tuesday - not only along lines of political party and ideology but also by race and ethnicity, gender and marital status, region and religion, education and age," it said. "Few if any expect him to seriously change Washington anymore; most voters just seemed to want him to make it function," wrote Peter Baker, in the New York Times. In 2008, "Obama had run as a symbol of limitless hope" but "this year, he ran as a symbol of hope`s limitations," commented the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal referenced voters` unease about the health of the economy, while McClatchy, a leading newspaper and web publisher, called the campaign "a referendum on who could better ease Americans` economic pain and uncertainty". "President Obama Beats Romney, Unemployment In Election Victory," summed up The Los Angeles Times headline. It noted how he had succeeded in "overcoming... the worst election-day unemployment rate since World War II." IANS