President Barack Obama was among those who got teary eyed Wednesday during a surprise visit to his Chicago-based 2012 campaign headquarters.

"What you guys have done means that the work that I'm doing is important, and I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of you," he said before choking up, turning his head and wiping away a tear.

The president spoke for about five minutes into a microphone while hundreds of volunteers, many of whom climbed desks to get a better vantage point, listened intently.

When the president's emotions became visible, the room erupted into applause in a unified show of support.

The Commander in Chief told the campaign workers he had no doubt they would go on to do "just amazing things."

 

"You guys are so much better than I was in so many ways," he said after recalling his move to Chicago at age 25 with a goal of public service but with little direction. "You're smarter and you're better organized and you're more effective."

Obama said that even before election returns started rolling in on Tuesday evening, the pride he felt for his team made him feel as though the work he'd done in running for office had come full circle.

"Your journey is just beginning. You're just starting and whatever good we do in the next four years will pale in comparison to what you guys end up accomplishing for years and years to come," he told them.
 

As it became clear that President Barack Obama was headed for another term in office, the most digitally savvy leader of the free world took to Twitter.

 "This happened because of you. Thank you," he tweeted, with a photo of him hugging first lady Michelle Obama, captioned "Four more years."

In the minutes that followed, the photo broke the record for most retweets, wrestling the crown from Justin Bieber.

Meanwhile, celebrities, journalists and politicos of all stripes weighed in on Obama's re-election, none with as much unhinged fervor as Donald Trump.

A selection of the night's highlights:

After voters in Maryland approved the Question 7 referendum to expand gambling, a new legal challenge could put casino plans in jeopardy.

A community next to National Harbor in Prince George’s County – a proposed location for a sixth Maryland casino – is suing Gov. Martin O’Malley and others.

“We were here first,” resident Joyce Thorpe said. “This is an old, established community.”
 
When the Fort Washington residents say “Not in my back yard,” it’s as literal as it gets.

The community is filled with thousands of homes and people who are worried about what a casino is going to mean for them
 
“We don’t like it one bit,” resident Bonnie Bick said. “We are very upset.”
 
When residents found out that there was a possibility of stopping the expansion of gaming and a new casino in Prince George’s County on a technicality, they filed a civil suit naming the attorney general and O’Malley among others.
 
“Our community is the host of National Harbor, and we were promised that the residential quality of life would be protected,” Bick said.

The suit challenging Question 7 alleges that the Maryland Attorney General’s Office misinterpreted the state constitution when it said the majority of those who voted could pass Question 7. Tom Dernoga, the attorney filing the suit, says it takes the majority of qualified voters in Maryland to pass a constitutional amendment, including those who didn’t show up to vote.

“I think the attorney general is all over the board on this, and at the end of the day, it really comes down to the people protecting their community,” Dernoga said. “As much as they don’t like gaming, what they are really concerned about is a casino in their neighborhood.”
 
The people who live in the community said they were just getting used to National Harbor, but the thought of a casino that that they weren’t expecting is more than they can bear.
 
“We were made promises, and these promises have been not kept,” Bick said.

Virginia Democrats are calling on Gov. Bob McDonnell to get to the bottom of what caused hours-long waits on Election Day in urban areas across the commonwealth.

In northern Virginia, some voters in Prince William County faced five-hour waits before casting their ballots. In Fairfax County, at least one polling place stayed open until 10:30 p.m. Similar issues kept voters standing in the cold for hours in Hampton Roads and the Richmond area.

"Asking anyone to wait several hours is unacceptable," Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Brian Moran said. "Why did it go so poorly this year and why were these long lines experienced? We're going to be a battleground state, so ultimately we don't want this to happen again. Let's take the proper steps. Let's fix it."

Republican Prince William County Board Chairman Corey Stewart also wants the problem fixed. He waited in line two hours to vote. He's asking the county's Board of Elections to report back to supervisors about what went wrong. Stewart said near-record turnout in Prince William along with the country's growth were factors.

"We're trying to keep up with that growth, but that obviously came to somewhat of a head this Election Day," Stewart said. "We are going to hear from the Board of Elections, a full report about why it took so long and why they weren't really ready for this massive influx of people." 

Fairfax County's Board Chairman Sharon Bulova is also proposing a review. She'll ask her board of supervisors to set up a bipartisan commission to analyze what happened.

Some voters and elected leaders also believe the complicated ballot questions and bond issues in some jurisdictions meant voters took much longer to finish their ballots in 2012.

In June, Phil Mendelson was selected by his peers to chair the D.C. Council. The temporary appointment was necessary because then-Chairman Kwame Brown resigned. Brown had other things to do, like plead guilty to felony bank fraud and campaign finance misdemeanor charges.

As interim chairman, Mendelson went about his work quietly. He made no dramatic changes to the way the Council did business. He also breezed through the special election to fill Brown’s term through 2014.

Now the real work begins.

The Council was in a state of chaos during the first half of 2012. Scandals, guilty pleas, resignations…

Even before law enforcement stepped in, Brown’s tenure was a slow moving train wreck. He consolidated power and handed out assignments with little rhyme or reason beyond what suited his political agenda du jour.

Mendelson has quite a mess to mop up. Reorganizing the Council will not be easy.

If the newly elected Chair is serious about showing his colleagues --and more importantly District residents-- that he intends to get tough and demand excellence, he should begin by assigning leadership positions based on competence.

First and foremost is the matter of an Education Committee. For more than five years the committee has been under the direct control of the Chair. It is time to create an Education Committee chaired by a Council member with a track record of dogged oversight and legislative ingenuity.

Next is the Committee on Economic Development. Michael Brown currently leads that committee, but after being defeated on Tuesday he has fewer than two months left in office.

And then there is the Committee on the Judiciary, which Mendelson currently directs.

Let the game of musical chairs commence.

Mendelson has great sway over what the final product will look like. He is under no obligation to bestow upon each member a chairmanship. Indeed, when he arrived to the Council in 1999, rookies were not given leadership posts. After two years on the job a member might be awarded a sub-committee.

So what should Mendelson do?

He would be wise to limit the number of committees. Combine existing legislative and oversight responsibilities, clip the wings of a few members and toss the seniority system out the window.

Evaluate Council members based on performance. Slackers and less-ethical members do not deserve the power or prestige associated with chairing a plum committee.

Between the time Tuesday's presidential race was called and the time Barack Obama took the stage at Chicago's McCormick Place to accept his victory, the president made and received two very important phone calls.

"He spoke with President Clinton. He wanted to call President Clinton after Gov. [Mitt] Romney called because President Clinton was valiant on behalf of this campaign, and, as the president said, [was] our most valuable player," Obama's Chief Campaign Strategist David Axelrod said Wednesday.

"He really wanted to share the moment with him," Axelrod added.

For the most part, Axelrod said Election Night was mostly stress-free.

"The tense time is before the votes start getting counted," he recalled. "As soon as the votes start getting counted, you have models. You can see where the votes are coming in from. We knew very quickly that it was going well."

After a night's sleep at his Hyde Park-Kenwood home, an invigorated and newly re-elected President Obama stopped by his 2012 campaign headquarters in the Prudential Building to meet with the hundreds of volunteers who helped in the effort to secure another four years.

"It was a really emotional visit," Axelrod said. "There were a lot of tears flowing up there and a lot of joy."

Some of the staffers stood on desks to get a better glimpse of the president as he spoke to those who, as Axelrod said, "worked their hearts out."

"He talked about what public service means ... I think the most powerful thing he said was he talked about his own career as a young community organizer and he said to them what inspires him so much is, 'You're so much better than I was. You know so much more,' and he said, 'You give me hope.'"

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For Axelrod, it was his last hurrah in politics.

Back in January, Axelrod announced that he would head to the University of Chicago to create a new Institute of Politics meant to rival the Harvard Kennedy School. The University of Chicago Institute of Politics opens officially in 2013, but began offering preliminary courses in Summer 2012.

Virginia is still pretty purple. That's one conclusion Democratic Senator-elect Tim Kaine drew from election results, in spite of his decisive victory over Republican George Allen. At his first news conference Wednesday, he rejected suggestions that Northern Virginia counties like Prince William and Loudoun were becoming increasingly blue.

"We've worked our way from the red zone to the purple zone,” he said. “I think we're going to be in the purple zone for a while."

Kaine believes he won because voters trusted him more to work across the aisle in the Senate to solve urgent problems like the looming sequester that could bring deep defense cuts.

"The American public wants us to solve the problem," Kaine explained. "The time for the bridge builders is at hand."

Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell also provided a little analysis today. He said he left a congratulatory voicemail for Kaine and got a gracious response in return. McDonnell also offered congratulations to President Barack Obama.

"The president's closing argument was very strong to those undecided voters,” he said. “His vaunted ground game was as good or better than ours was and it's probably the best it's ever been in Virginia."

He also credited the president's ability to reach out to a broad cross section of Virginians.

"To win twice in a row as a Democrat in Virginia is an historic achievement, and again, I credit the president and his campaign for their good work," he said

McDonnell said there is consolation for Republicans in the fact that eight of Virginia's 11 congressional seats stayed in GOP hands. The governor said Republicans now have a lot of work to do.

"We... have to do a better job where the president excelled, and that is doing better to get young people to the polls," he said.

McDonnell said the party must set a more positive tone, reasoning, "If we want people to be a part of the team, we have to look like it’s a fun team to join."

Sen.-Elect Tim Kaine urged Republicans and Democrats to work together and build consensus, a day after he defeated George Allen for a crucial Virginia Senate seat.

During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Kaine stressed the need to find a solution to to the government's financial woes before the end of 2012.

"I think there is a huge opportunity that has to be seized in Congress between now and the end of the year, to find a path forward so that we can avoid some of the catastrophic consequences of either deep sequestration cuts or willy-nilly expiration of all the Bush tax cuts," he said.

"If those were to happen because Congress couldn't find a path forward to working on a deal, it would send a very bad signal generally about our ability to work together, and also hurt the economy," he continued.

While Kaine won't take office until January, he said he'll continue to advocate for bipartisanship, and that he had tried to remain positive and focused on Virginia's future during a bruising campaign.

Voters "saw the targeting; they saw the negative ads but they wanted to embrace a positive message," Kaine said.

During his term, he said, will focus on building infrastructure, elevating small businesses, and "making America the most talented place on earth."

Economic power in the 21st century will be driven by education and immigration, he said. "If we do them right, they are the best guarantee of long-term economic success."

But to accelerate job growth, members of Congress are going to have to learn to cooperate. "I actually believe that the principal shackle around the American economy right now has been congressional dysfunction," he said.

On Tuesday night, Kaine -- who has served as governor of Virginia, chair of the Democratic National Committee, and mayor of Richmond -- added senator-elect to his list shortly before 11 p.m. as Allen conceded the race.

With 97 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Kaine led Allen 52 percent to 48 percent, a margin of slightly more than 172,000 votes.

An exuberant Kaine hit the stage to make a victory speech, but he had barely begun when he interrupted himself with even bigger news for the Democratic crowd, NBC4's Julie Carey reported.

"NBC just called the presidential race," he said, but his next words were drowned out by the crowd, which erupted in screams and cheers.

It was a moment that duplicated the history made four years ago, when for the first time in 40 years, Virginia voters selected a Democratic presidential candidate. They also picked a Democratic senator, Mark Warner, in 2008.

This year, with first-time Sen. Jim Webb (D) retiring, Republicans had hoped to put the open seat in GOP hands. Webb had defeated Allen in a similarly close Senate race in 2006.

"If anyone had the sense after 2008 that it was just a fluke, last night demonstrated that it was not," Kaine said Wednesday.

Many political observers saw the seat as key in swinging the balance of the Senate. Of the 33 Senate seats up for grabs in this year's election, 21 were held by Democrats, including the seat for which Allen and Kaine battled.

The win, Kaine said Tuesday night, sends a message: "Our victory tonight proves that it's the number of people who stand with you, not the number of zeroes behind a check, that define elections," he told crowds during his victory speech Tuesday night.

He struck a more moderate tone during his Wednesday press conference.

"Congress can seem to a lot of people now like, 'oh, what a horrible institution,' but the history of the Senate and the history of Congress is not a one-way path to dysfunction...." he said. "There have been moments of great service and function and then moments of great problems."

But, he said, "If you listen to the voices of the electorate, they are telling us over and over and over again to work together."

For the latest results in the race, click here. 

The most important number for President Barack Obama on Election Day was 270, the number of electoral votes needed to clinch his re-election. But for the rest of us, the culmination of the marathon 2012 presidential race provided a host of other fascinating figures.

From the numbers of women elected to the U.S. Senate to the stack of Donald Trump's disgruntled tweets after the race was called for Obama, here is a numerical guide to Election Day 2012:

303 – The number of electoral votes Obama was projected to have won as of Wednesday morning, with Florida still too close to call, according to NBC News. He needed 270 to win reelection.

206 – The number of electoral votes former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was projected to have secured, as per NBC News.

2,625,875 – The number of votes separating Obama and Romney in the popular vote count with 97 percent of results in, according to NBC News.

118 million – The number of Americans who voted in the presidential election, with 97 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press. The number is sure to rise.

131 million – The number of people who cast ballots for president back in 2008, according to the AP.

71 – The percentage of Latinos who voted for Obama in this election, NBC News reported. Latinos represented 10 percent of the electorate.

27 – The percent of the Latino vote that Romney received, the lowest for any Republican in a generation, according to Slate.

89 – The percentage of all votes Romney won that came from whites, compared to 56 percent for Obama.

327,452 –- The peak number of tweets per minute after networks called the election for Obama at 11:19 p.m. ET. Twitter said the moment was its most-tweeted moment of Election 2012 by far.

396,372 – The number of new Facebook "likes" Obama received on Election Day.

20 — The number of women who will occupy the U.S. Senate come January, which will be a record high, NBC News reported.

53 —The number of U.S. Senate seats NBC News projected Democrats held. Another seat was held by Democratic-caucusing Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, and a seat in Maine was won by Independent Angus King, who Democrats were confident would vote with them although he refused to say with whom he would caucus.

12:50 – The time early Wednesday morning that Romney called Obama to congratulate him on his victory, according to the Boston Globe.

43 – The number of applause interruptions during Obama's victory speech, according to a transcript of the president's speech.

1,118 – The number of words in Romney's prepared victory speech, according to the AP.

455,000 (and counting) – The number of people who retweeted President Obama’s "four more years" message with a photo showing him hugging his wife, according to Twitter.

9 – The number of tweets sent by Donald Trump after Obama was declared winner -- that Trump didn't delete later -- starting with "Well, back to the drawing board!" and concluding with "House of Representatives shouldn’t give anything to Obama unless he terminates Obamacare." Trump deleted other tweets alleging Obama lost the popular vote and calling for "revolution," Mashable reported.

4 in 10 – The ratio of voters who said in exit polls they thought the economy is getting better, according to the AP.

10 – The number of defeated Democratic House incumbents, according to Politico.

12 – The number of defeated Republican House incumbents, per Politico.

2 – The number of states (Maine and Maryland) that approved gay marriage by popular vote, bringing the total number of states where same-sex marriage is legal to eight.

0 – The number of states where voters had previously voted in favor of allowing gay marriage.

1 – The number of members of Congress with backgrounds as reindeer ranchers and Santa Claus impersonators, according to the Detroit Free Press.

7.9 – The U.S. unemployment rate on Election Day, according to the Bureau of Labor Standards.

973,759 – The number of Hurricane Sandy victims still without power on Election Day, according to the Department of Energy.

15 – An estimate of the percentage decline in New York voter turnout compared from 2008 levels, according to the AP.

32 million – The number of early and mail-in ballots cast in 34 states and the District of Columbia before Election Day, according to the AP.

$3.46 – The national average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline on Election Day, according to the AP.

Alexandra Ward and Sam Schulz also contributed to this report.

News4's Shani Hilton live-blogged the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee election watch party at the Liason Capitol Hill Hotel.

12:50 a.m. - The only people left are the folks cleaning up the party space and a few reporters. Attendees of the DCCC party didn't even stick around to see Romney concede. A blast of the Black Eyed Peas and they were gone.

11:25 p.m. Hugs, cheers, and chants of "Four More Years" capped off an upbeat night at the DCCC party as NBC projected a Barack Obama win for president. "I can't believe it was so [expletive] fast," shouted one man. Senate Majority Leader (and going by the seats picked up by Dem senate candidates) Senate Majority Leader-to-be Harry Reid noted rather mildly, "Things like this happen when your number one goal is to defeat the president and not get legislation passed."

10:52 p.m. - A line of not-Very Important People are sitting along the press risers -- tired looking, but sticking the night out. Those on their feet crowd opposite corners of the room, where televisions broadcast continue to broadcast results. At NBC projecting an Obama win in Minnesota, the crowd cheers, not that the projection is particularly surprising. When the door to a side VIP room, guarded by a tall staffer, opens, we can hear laughter and celebratory clinking of glasses. As Kaine is projected to win the Virginia Senate seat, the cheers and clapping roll through the room.

9:59 p.m. - The crowd is smaller but hardy. Dems are rotating between the cash bar and the television screen. Democrats and the president have pulled off wins in key states and the mood is high. DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil pops back into the press room to give a smaller update. "We are encouraged," Cecil says, and cautiously optimistic that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will remain Senate Majority Leader come 2013.

9:44 p.m. - More huge cheers as NBC calls Massachusetts and Indiana senate races for Democrats.

9:30 p.m.- Huge cheers as Wisconsin is called.

9:10 p.m. - Now it's a party -- and not just because the DJ is playing "Glad You Came." Rep. Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Steve Israel are downright joyous over the returns, limited though they may be. "We are feeling upbeat and we are feeling good," Israel told the buoyant crowd, to many a "woo!" Pelosi made an analogy to the San Francisco Giants' World Series win, calling Democratic Voters "Team USA." May the church say "woo!"

8:36 p.m. - Perhaps out of concerns about keeping information-hungry journalists away from the actual party, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee sends in Executive Director Guy Cecil to address the press room filing with a brief update. "We obviously have a long way to go in terms of getting results in," Cecil says. But he is optimistic about Florida, Maine, and Massachusetts. Cecil also echoes what everyone is saying about Virginia. "As you know, Virginia has been one of the closest senate races throughout the cycle ... My suspicion is it will be awhile before a lot of those votes come in."

8:19 p.m. - "Big Willie Style" may be playing on the speaker system, but it doesn't feel terribly festive just yet. The ballroom is about one third full, and we'd estimate 100-150 people are mingling and chatting, sipping and snacking. A small contingent of returns watchers are crowded around a flat screen in the corner, watching, to our horror, CNN.

7:38 p.m.- While the ballroom remains empty of everyone but the press, the open bar/atrium is starting to fill with young Dem staffers. No big names yet. In the press room everyone is facing straight ahead, watching the returns trickle in.

6:30 p.m. - No one is here yet but people are expected to speak around 8.

News4's David Mullins live-blogged the GOP election watch party from the Reagan Building.

11:45 p.m. - The musical act, Collin Raye,  just paused for a moment. The lead singer said, "We came here for a party. We had hoped it would turn out different. But we can still party. What else can we do at this point? What else can we do?"

There are roughly 50 guests left in a large atrium that was packed less than half an hour ago. Most who stayed are drinking and just standing by the stage, watching and listening to the band. A smile is not to be found. Conversation is extremely minimal. Disappointment seems to be the major theme among those who, because of the most recent poll results, have come to accept that President Barack Obama was just re-elected for a second term.

11:31 p.m. - Music is back on. In the middle of a song, the lead singer says, "Grab a drink. Drink, drink, drink. God Bless us all for being here."

11:29 p.m. - Obama wins Ohio and the crowd's energy drops. A lot of people leave right away. The crowd is much quieter than they were the entire night, and everyone seems to keep to themselves.

Many people didn't want to comment. Here's what I got:

"It's kinda depressing," said Martin Paul. "We were working hard to make Mitt Romney president." Then he fell silent."

"It's obviously tough," Steven Howell. "I can't believe he's re-elected. I'm worried about the path this country's on. We need to make sure these plans are put into action."

11:03 p.m. - Big (yet short) cheer from the crowd when Romney took North Carolina. The music didn't stop, however, and guests quickly returned to their food and drinks. It seems as if the win wasn't a surprise to anyone here.

10:57 p.m. - Ronnie Milsap is still on stage. Crowd has died down and dispersed a bit. At least half have gone home (or somewhere other than here).

John Kelly is a volunteer who lives in DC, but is originally from Michigan. He says, "I was disappointed to see my home state called so early to Obama. I don't know. Regardless of how the election turns out, though, we still have a lot of issues to solve and hopefully we can come together as a country."

10:30 p.m. - Reince Priebus just took the stage for a few seconds to say that he will be back a little later. Not sure why. Will update when he actually speaks.

10:20 p.m. - Ronnie Milsap took the stage and is the focus. Guests have gone back to mingling and drinking. Chairman Priebus has yet to speak, but is still expected.

10:00 p.m. - Congressman Pete Sessions took the stage to briefly introduce Speaker Boehner, who was welcomed with thunderous applause (& cheers, etc). Boehner talked about keeping control of the House of Representatives to a crowd that could barely hold in its excitement. Some quotations:

"I want to thank Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, but most of all I think we want to thank the American people."

"We offered the American people solutions, and they want solutions."

"We will never take it for granted and we will never let you down. God Bless you and God Bless our country."

9:45 p.m. Nic Breeding is a volunteer from VA. Earlier today, he was at the RNC making calls out to Iowa asking for Romney votes. He made over 200 calls and feels great about the night, but understands there are a lot of states left.

He says, "I believe in grass roots. One-on-one is the most influential way to make a difference."

The large screen is showing Fox News, and the music has stopped for now. People are paying more attention now to the results.

8:44 p.m. - Sharon Day addressed the crowd early, at 8:20. Her speech was roughly 3 minutes long. Very patriotic. Roaring applause at the end. Some quotations:

"We will celebrate a Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan leadership."

"Celebrate, work hard, and unite this country."

"We believe in America. God bless you."

Afterwards, someone (asking around to find out who -- no one in the press area knows) sang the National Anthem.

8:00 p.m. - Grand Ole Opry is on the stage now and will be until around 8:30. At that time, Sharon Day is scheduled to make welcome remarks. They are expecting 2500 - 3000 guests tonight. Everyone is still mingling / eating, very positive and lively. Main focus is the band at this point.

7:31 p.m. - Guests have started to arrive. The band is still practicing. Electoral votes and poll results are occasionally loaded onto the big screen through Fox News. Everyone seems very positive and lively, but currently more focused on the food than the results. Still early. I'd say demographic of crowd is mostly 20-30 years old.

7:11 p.m. -The band on stage in that picture is the John Berry Band. Speeches tonight will be given by Sharon Day, Speaker John Boehner, and Pete Sessions.

Press is confined to a certain area of the party, but I'll pull people towards me for interviews any chance I get. 

Elizabeth Warren took back a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts for Democrats after beating Republican Sen. Scott Brown, helping her party hang onto its majority in the chamber, according to NBC News projections.

With 95 percent of the vote in, the Harvard law professor and consumer advocate had 54 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent for Brown, NBC News reported.

"For every family that has been chipped and squeezed and hammered, we're going to fight for you," Warren said in a victory speech Tuesday night. "We're going to fight for a level playing field and we're going to put people back to work."

Warren's projected victory came after a tough, contentious battle against the incumbent, who stunned the political establishment in 2010 when he won the seat held for 47 years by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. She will become the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the Senate.

Warren, 63, had the backing of the president, who tapped her to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and gave her a prime speaking spot at the Democratic National Convention this fall. She cast herself as a champion of consumers, the middle class and women, who overwhelmingly supported her bid, according to The New York Times.

Brown, 53, portrayed himself as a moderate everyman in a state dominated by Democrats.

"You've got no business in politics unless you respect the judgment of people," Brown said in a concession speech Tuesday. "And if you run for office, you've got to be able to take it either way, winning or losing, and I accept the decision of voters."

The race drew national attention for the amount of money poured into it — at least $68 million, according to The Associated Press — and for several flaps that came out of the months-long contest.

It was Warren's speech about the role of government in private sector success that morphed into the "you didn't build that" line Republicans used against the president.

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own, nobody," Warren said last August, according to the Los Angeles Times. "You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for, you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate, you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for."

President Obama riffed on that speech with his own, which became fodder for the Mitt Romney campaign and led to accusations that he was anti-business.

Warren also came under scrutiny after admitting that she had identified herself as a minority, claiming Native American ancestry in a law faculty directory. 

President Barack Obama won a second term on Tuesday, emerging from a long, punishing campaign with a new mandate to lead a divided and anxious nation.

"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," Obama said in a victory speech in his hometown of Chicago. "We have fought our way back and we know in our hearts for the United States of America, the best is yet to come."

For full Decision 2012 coverage, visit NBCNews.com.

Obama said his re-election came with a sense of accomplishment and a new surge of hope.

"Our economy is recovering. A decade of war is ending. A long campaign is now over," he said. "And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you. I have learned from you. And you've made me a better president. And with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and about the future and life ahead."

But the cold reality is that when he arrives back in Washington, the president will face the same obstacles he did before the election. With Republicans maintaining control of the House of Representatives, the era of political gridlock will likely continue.

That challenge was articulated by one of his most outspoken opponents, Sen. Mitch McConnell, leader of Senate Republicans.

"Now it's time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely-divided Senate, step up to the plate on the challenges of the moment, and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office," McConnell said. “To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we’ll be there to meet him half way."

Obama's triumph unfolded incrementally Tuesday night, as he racked up a string of victories in crucial battlegrounds. One after another, states that had been deemed competitive swing states before Election Day fell into the president's hands.

Pennsylvania. Wisconsin. New Hampshire. Iowa. Virginia. With each Obama win, the path to victory for his opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, got narrower.

Finally, just after 11 p.m. ET, NBC News projected Obama to win Ohio, his so-called "firewall" and the one state that has sided with the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1960. Obama's win there, thanks in large part to the state's support of his bailout of the auto industry, handed him the Electoral College swing votes he needed.

Romney conceded the race in a phone call to the president just before 1 a.m. ET. He then took the stage at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, telling supporters that he wished the president well.

"This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation," Romney said.

Obama's battleground victories were so authoritative that Florida, which was considered the biggest  prize, wasn't even a factor.

Florida was the only state that remained too close to call as of 6:00 a.m. ET. Its results won't be known until after the start of business Wednesday. 

So many people turned out to vote Tuesday that Ohio, Florida and Virginia kept polls open long after official closing times to accommodate the people waiting in long lines that snaked from the doors of polling places.

Exit polls indicated that Obama was favored among women, young adults, singles and Latinos — the last group by wider margins than in 2008.

"Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests," Obama wrote in an email to supporters.

The first person Obama called after getting the concession call from Romney was former President Bill Clinton, a campaign official told NBC News.

The former president was one of Obama’s top surrogates, and onlookers credited his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte with Obama's "Clinton bump" in the polls.

Obama, Romney and their proxies spent nearly $2 billion, a record amount for a presidential campaign.

In his concession speech, Romney said he had no regrets and hoped that the country would move past its partisan differences to solve the nation's problems.

"I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction," he said. "But the nation chose another leader."

Less than an hour later, at about 1:45 a.m. ET, Obama appeared before a roaring crowd at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. His wife, Michelle, and their two daughters accompanied him on stage while Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" blasted. Then they left him to deliver his victory speech.

Obama congratulated Romney "on a hard-fought campaign."

“We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country, we care so strongly about its future," he said.

The president went on to say that the rancor and rift that characterized the campaign was understandable, given the nation's challenges.

"That won't change after tonight. And it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty, and we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today."

Obama, 51, the country’s first black president, won election in 2008 on a promise of hope and change, but he triumphed this time with a starkly different message: asking voters to stick with him as he continues trying to fix the economy and improve America’s standing in the world.

He defeated Romney, 65, a wealthy venture capitalist who’d been running for president for the better part of a decade. A win for Romney would have been vindication, of sorts, for his family; his father, George, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968.

The 2012 race highlighted two contrasting visions of the country. Where Romney emphasized the need to lower taxes, relax federal regulations and cut government spending, Obama promised to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and deploy government’s help in pulling the country out of the economic doldrums.

Despite his image as stiff and disinterested in the plight of the middle class, Romney managed to make the race close by appealing to many voters’ disappointment in Obama and widespread anxiety about the economy. Romney promised to bring a businessman’s sensibility to the job, a point he drove home in the first presidential debate, which he dominated. That performance sparked a surge in the polls that made the race tight right up until Election Day.

But Romney, in the end, was not able to fully convince an edgy public that he could do a better job than Obama. Nor was Romney able to overcome Obama’s image as a more likable guy.

Now Romney may well have run his last race for public office.

Obama will begin his second term no longer a symbol of political catharsis but as a flawed but adaptive leader who took a lot of lumps and learned from them.

The president's re-election means there will likely be no overturning of his signature domestic policy achievement, the 2010 health care reform law. Obama has also promised to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year.

Obama must also make good on his campaign promises to finally correct America’s economic path by finding ways to add a million more manufacturing jobs, boost domestic energy production, reduce the county’s carbon footprint, shore up Medicare, cut students' college loan costs and slash the national deficit by $4 trillion.

When he returns to the White House, he won’t have much time to savor his victory, because he’ll face the threat of a year-end "fiscal cliff," when a series of tax cuts are set to expire and massive government spending cuts go into effect.

As he noted in his email to supporters Tuesday night: "There's a lot more work to do."

A Philadelphia court judge ordered poll workers to cover up a mural of President Barack Obama that was inside a polling place at a local school.

The uproar started when upset voters began circulating pictures via social media after voting at Ben Franklin Elementary School Tuesday morning.

The Republican Party quickly took action, filing a lawsuit that claimed illegal electioneering. The Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason issued this statement on PAGOP.ORG.

“Whether it’s blocking Republican Election Day workers form doing their job or violating Pennsylvania law by electioneering in the polling place, it is clear the Obama campaign has taken their campaign in the gutter to manipulate this election however they can.  Based on the Obama campaign’s behavior today, it certainly raises the question: what are Democrats doing in the polls that they are working so hard to shield folks from monitoring this election?”

Judge Milton Younge, Jr. of the Court of Common Pleas ordered that the mural be covered for the rest of election day with "blank paper or similar material" and "in its entirety," according to NBC News' Pete Williams.

As of 2 p.m., the mural was not entirely covered. NBC10 snapped a picture showing three sheets of paper covering the president's face.

In other Pennsylvania election news, a Department of State official told The Associated Press that a voting machine was recalibrated and put back into service after a Perry County voter reported that it had switched his switched his vote from Obama to Mitt Romney.

Just four more days until Election Day, and in the decisively blue District of Columbia, one of the most competitive races is for Michael Brown’s at-large council seat. Brown is hoping to be reelected, but his main challenger, Independent David Grosso, has the cash and credentials to unseat him.

(Vincent Orange’s at-large seat is also up for grabs, but people assume he’ll easily be re-elected.)

Grosso, a lawyer, formerly worked for council member Sharon Ambrose and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. He is a major advocate of school reform and has been stressing the importance of ethics and transparency in government -- which is a big deal for council that has been marred by investigations and resignations.

Grosso started campaigning early on and has raised more than $150,000 -- outraising Brown 2-1 in the final weeks of the campaign.

For his part, Brown was elected to the council in 2008 and has been a big advocate for affordable taxing and social services in the city. Labor unions have been his big backers. Nearly half of his campaign funds ($113,00) has been reported stolen.

But Grosso has received some high-profile endorsements, including nods from the Washington Post  and Washington City Paper.

A City Paper poll a few weeks ago showed Grosso within striking distance of Brown, with 26 percent of voters saying they supported Brown and 21 percent for Grosso. (A whopping 32 percent said they were undecided.)

But with such a large number of undecided and Grosso spending the big bucks in the final weeks of the campaign, it’s still anyone’s game.

ICYMI: DCist and DC for Democracy have some pretty handy voter guides

IN OTHER NEWS:

* A Georgetown ANC candidate could become the youngest openly gay elected official in the country.

* Why both Tim Kaine and George Allen are vying to be the most bipartisan.

* George Allen takes out $500k campaign loan.

* Kwame Brown apologizes, but feds want Kwame Brown to spend six days in jail.

* Mayor Gray’s birthday party invite list came out. Were you one of the lucky 200?

* Gov. McDonnell’s family beach houses were burglarized.

Extra voting machines were added at some Maryland early voting sites to help with long lines, but many residents still waited hours to cast their votes Friday.

Dedicated voters in Prince George’s County were put to the test during early voting with lines that stretched outside of polling places and sometimes down the street. Jeronn Russell told News4 she waited four hours to vote.

“If we are having three- and four-hour waits during the early vote period, what does that translate to on Nov. 6?” Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee Terry Speigner asked.
 
He’s worried that some voters may get frustrated, leave and not go back to vote.

“I don’t think the Board of Elections was prepared for the amount of people that are coming out for the early vote,” he said.
 
An estimated 56,000 people had voted in Prince George’s County by Friday evening. That’s 10 percent of those registered, so the thought of what’s coming on Election Day has some worried.

“The facilities that we are using don’t have the capacity that we need to really conduct early voting,” Prince George’s County Elections Administrator Alisha Alexander said.

She said the state’s formula for voting machines during early voting coupled with limited space resulted in longer lines, but don’t expect the same thing for Election Day. There may be a wait, but with more polling places and machines, it shouldn’t be as long.

“Early voting is an important part of the process, but we’re also looking at and have to make sure that we have enough units for the Nov. 6 Election Day where the majority of the voters will come out to vote,” she said.
 
“I hope and pray that it won’t be as bad,” Speigner said. “My hope and prayer is that we can get folks on Nov. 6 down to no more than an hour, hour-and-a-half tops.”

Set your clocks, there are fewer than 24 hours until Election Day. If you haven't voted early like tens of thousands in Maryland and D.C., Morning Read has compiled a summary of the major elections and ballot measures facing voters in the DMV area.

Maryland

Democrats President Barack Obama and Senator Ben Cardin may glide to victory in Maryland, but there’s still a number of important state-wide ballot initiatives that remain toss-ups. Here are some of the big ones:

Question 3: This amendment would suspend elected officials found guilty of a crime and immediately remove them from office when they plead guilty or no-contest.

Question 4: The Maryland Dream Act would allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition provided that they went to high school in the state and their parents pay state taxes. Supporters of the law say it will be an economic boon for the state, while opponents argue it will encourage more illegal immigration.

Question 5: Maryland’s new Congressional map redrawn by state Democrats has received a lot of heat for its alleged gerrymandering. This question asks voters whether they want to uphold Gov. Martin O’Malley’s new map, or reject it. (Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a 10-term Maryland incumbent, could lose his seat come Tuesday because of the new map. His longtime Republican district has been redrawn to be majority Democrat.)

Question 6: This ballot measure to uphold Gov. O’Malley’s law to legalize same-sex marriages in the state is arguably the most high-profile of the bunch. Opponents of this law gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum and leave the decision up to voters. Voting yes for this question would allow gay couples to marry in Maryland. Polling suggests that Maryland is on track to become the first state where voters will uphold same-sex marriage.

Question 7: The question of whether or not to expand gambling in the state of Maryland has been the center of a costly campaign these last few months. This measure asks voters whether they want to add a sixth casino site in the state in Prince George’s County and allow table games in already existing casinos.

In Montgomery County, voters will be asked whether they would like to amend the county charter to allow the local government to more easily recruit employees with disabilities. A second question will ask voters whether they want to approve limits on police unions.

Virginia

All eyes are on the presidential and Senate races, which recent polling shows to still be deadlocked or close to it.

But there are other questions on the Virginia ballot that have been overshadowed by these two big races. Question 1 on Virginia’s ballot would put limits on the state’s power of eminent domain -- restricting property seizure to public use only.

Question 2 would allow the state’s General Assembly to delay the start of a veto session for up to one week. Currently, the veto session must begin on the sixth Wednesday following the end of each session.

In Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, longtime Democratic Congressman Jim Moran faces challenger Patrick Murray. Murray, a Republican, lost to Moran by 45,000 votes in 2010, but this time the two are facing off in a newly redrawn district that Murray is hoping will give him a better showing.

In the 10th Congressional District, Republican incumbent Rep. Frank Wolf is the heavy favorite. He faces Democrat Kristin Cabral, a prosecutor from Fairfax County, and independent Kevin Chisholm, an engineer.

Democrat Gerry Connolly faces five challengers in his race to keep his Congressional seat in Virginia’s 11th District. His most threatening opponent is Republican Chris Perkins, a retired Army colonel who now works as a national security consultant.

District of Columbia

Like Maryland, the presidential race in D.C. will be a blowout. But there are other competitive races in the District.

While Vincent Orange is expected to easily keep his at-large council seat, the election between at-large incumbent Michael Brown and his main challenger, David Grosso, will likely be one of the most competitive races on Tuesday. Grosso, an independent, has raised more than $150,000 and has outraised Brown more by 2-1 in the final weeks of the election.

D.C. Congressional Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton is facing challenges from Libertarian Bruce Majors and Statehood Green Natalie Stracuzzi. Norton has held the seat for 22 years and has not received less than 88 percent of the votes in the last 18 years.

There will be a special election for chairman of the D.C. Council on Tuesday to replace Kwame Brown. Current Chairman Phil Mendelson, who was appointed by his fellow council members to replace Brown, is running against Democratic challenger Calvin Gurley. The winner will finish out the remaining two years of Brown’s term,

Councilman Jack Evans is running unopposed in Ward 2 and this reelection will make him the longest serving member on the council. Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser is also running unopposed.

In Ward 7, incumbent Democrat Yvette Alexander faces Republican Ron Moten. Moten has been trying to make the race competitive, but he’s running in a District that’s 84 percent Democrat.

Mayor-for-life Marion Barry’s Ward 8 council seat is being challenged by independent Jauhar Abraham, the co-founder of the anti-youth violence group Peacoholics.

There also are three questions addressing the ethics of elected on the D.C. ballot. Question 5 would allow voters to expel a member of the council for “gross misconduct” with 11 of the 13 councilmembers voting in favor of the expulsion. Questions 6 and 7 would make anyone (councilmembers and mayor) convicted of a felony while in office ineligible to hold that position again.

IN OTHER NEWS:

* Both parties think their man's got Virginia

* Face the facts? No one in D.C. bikes to the grocery store?

* PPP Poll: Obama leads in Virginia

* Phew, the bro roommate ad was not a violation of housing law

* Virginia Senate race is still the nation's most expensive

* The Post's Robert McCartney predicts the outcomes of races in the DMV. (Spoiler: He sees good things for the Democrats in Virginia)

* FiveThirtyEight profiles Virginia

* Stevie Wonder performs in Hampton Roads for Obama

* D.C.'s most significant environmental justice case in recent years

* Arlington parents still struggling with bus policy

Virginia remains a toss-up. That’s the takeaway from a new NBC/WSJ/Marist poll from the battleground state released Monday.

Just two days before what is shaping up to be a very tight presidential election, President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remain in a statistical tie for the Commonwealth’s crucial 13 electoral votes. Obama holds a narrow 48 to 47 percent edge among likely voters. (There’s little change with registered voters – President Obama’s advantage grows a point to 48 to 46 percent.)

Three weeks ago, the results were reversed in the poll with Romney holding a 48 to 47 percent edge.

The president continues to benefit from better feelings about the direction of the country. While more people think the country is headed in the wrong direction (49 percent) than the right path (46 percent), that’s an improvement from just three weeks ago when the spread was 10 points (53 percent wrong direction, 43 percent right path).

That’s a consistent trend seen in the battlegrounds and national polls since Labor Day. Voters had been saying the country was off on the wrong track by much wider margins.

There also continues to be a slight gender gap with the president leading Romney 51 to 45 percent among women, but that gap has been cut in half since last month. That’s about the margin Obama won by in Virginia in 2008 over Sen. John McCain: seven points.

But more men said they support the president this month than last. Last month, Romney led by 15 points with men; this month, it’s 5 points. McCain beat Obama with men by 4 points in 2008 in Virginia.

Obama’s approval is 49 percent, a point better than his ballot score. Seven in 10 Virginians said they approve of the president’s handling of Hurricane Sandy.

Geography is key to either side’s victory Tuesday. The president needs to run up big margins in the D.C. suburbs. He leads by 17 points, 56 to 39 percent, there. But in the swing Northern Virginia exurbs, Romney holds a narrow edge: 49 to 47 percent. Romney also leads by 5 points in the Central/Western part of the state, is up 8 in the swing Richmond/Eastern part of the state, and is tied with Obama in Tidewater.

Romney leads by 5 with independents, but Obama leads by 12 with moderates. In 2008, Obama won independents by a point and moderates by 17.

In the Senate race, Democrat Tim Kaine continues to edge Republican George Allen 49 to 46 percent, a 2-point improvement for Kaine.

The poll was conducted Nov. 1-2. Poll takers interviewed 1,165 likely voters, and the poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. The party ID in the poll is +3D. In 2008, it was +6D.

After many months, countless attack ads and nearly $2 billion raised and spent, the presidential campaign is finally coming to a close. To help put the long slog of a race into perspective, we’ve dipped into the archives and come up with a list of some of the campaign’s most pivotal, and memorable moments.

Rick Perry’s debate brain freeze

There was a time, more than a year ago, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry was considered the front runner among a strong field of Republican primary candidates that included Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, conservative talk radio host Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. But Perry had a crushing weakness: muddy debate performances. His string of live-action flubs culminated on Nov. 9, 2011, when he tried to name the three federal agencies he’d eliminate if he became president.

"It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone," Perry said. "Commerce, Education, and the…what's the third one there? Let's see." Nearly a minute passed, as some of the other candidates tried to help him out with suggestions. But it did no good. “The third agency of government I would do away with - the education, the uh, the commerce and let’s see. I can’t the third one. I can’t. Sorry. Oops.” Later, he remembered: the Department of Energy. But it was too late. Perry was dogged by speculation that he would drop out. He vowed to fight on, but by January he was gone.

Cain withdraws from race

Even the most outsider candidates seem to have their surges of popularity, and for a brief time Herman Cain had his with a "9-9-9" tax plan. And then he fell just as quickly, as a series of women came forward with allegations that he had sexually harassed them while he ran the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. Another woman claimed she had carried on a 13-year extramarital affair with him. Cain denied it all, but the charges overwhelmed his campaign, and on December 9, 2011, he dropped out, citing the “continued hurt on me and my family.”

Santorum shocks Romney

Perhaps Tom Brokaw said it best when he summed up Rick Santorum’s dogged candidacy by comparing the conservative former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania to a Hollywood action hero. "He's like a character in a Bruce Willis movie," Brokaw quipped during the head of the primary season. "He just knows how to stay alive.”

Santorum’s insurgency began with a surprising showing in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. The Iowa GOP originally announced Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes, but reversed itself less than two weeks later, when a closer count revealed that Santorum had won by 34 votes. The difference was more than just a few votes; it established Santorum as a force to be reckoned with, and he rode that momentum for months, picking up primary victories in February and March. Romney finally got the better of Santorum in April, reeling off three victories that resulted in Santorum withdrawing on April 4.

Biden forces Obama’s hand on same-sex marriage

Vice President Joe Biden is known for his spontaneity, which can catch even his closest allies off guard. At no time was was that more evident than on May 6, when Biden went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and declared that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage. The statement caught President Barack Obama by surprise, and effectively forced his hand on the issue. Obama had once stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, but had more recently conceded that his stance was “evolving,” and apparently intended to declare his support some time just before the Democratic National Convention in August. Instead, on May 9, Obama gave an interview the ABC News in which he endorsed same-sex marriage. "At a certain point, I've just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." Biden reportedly apologized to Obama for upsetting the president’s plans.

Romney clinches nomination

The race between President Obama and Mitt Romney officially began on May 29, when Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination with a landslide victory in Texas. The achievement was largely symbolic, because he was already considered the front-runner, and most of his challengers, including Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, had dropped out. Romney, whose father, George, a Michigan governor, failed in his run for the Republican nomination in 1968, vindicated that loss and became the first Mormon to become a major-party nominee. "I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy,” Romney announced. “And I am humbled to have won enough delegates."

Romney picks Paul Ryan

One of the biggest problems Romney faced as the GOP’s nominee was ambivalence from the party’s conservative wing. His solution was to pick Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. Ryan, the 42-year-old chairman of the House Budget Committee, was the author of a budget proposal that called for steep tax reductions, aggressive spending cuts, and a reorganization of the way Medicare and Medicaid operate. In short, Ryan was the answer to conservatives’ prayers: he was young, aggressive, well-spoken and, as a photo spread in Time illustrated, was in really good shape.

The choice highlighted the difference between the two campaigns on entitlements, taxes, the role of government in American life, and social issues, such as abortion. “There are a lot of people in the other party who might disagree with Paul Ryan,” Romney said at a rally in which he introduced Ryan. “I don't know of anyone who doesn't respect his character and judgment.” Ryan promised that he and Romney “won’t duck the tough issues. We will lead.”

Eastwood’s empty chair

On paper, Romney was the headliner of the Republican National Convention. But he was nearly outshone by an unlikely political speech-maker: Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood, who was introduced as a surprise guest just before Romney was scheduled to take the stage in Tampa on Aug. 30 and formally accept the GOP nomination. Working without a script or teleprompter, Eastwood, 82, delivered a long, rambling monologue that mocked Obama and Biden. He arranged for an empty chair to be brought on stage with him, and conducted an imaginary conversation with the president. The crowd of delegates roared, but the speech delayed Romney’s by 10 minutes and dominated discussion of the night’s events.

The Big Dog returns

Obama, too, was upstaged at his party’s convention. But unlike Romney’s choice of Eastwood, Obama pretty much knew what he was getting when he asked Clinton to formally nominate him at the Democratic National Convention’s second night in Charlotte on Sept. 5. The president and Clinton had never been close – their rivalry dated back to Hilary Clinton’s primary battle against Obama in 2008 – but they agreed to bury the hatchet in order to keep the White House in Democratic hands. Clinton, out of office for 12 years, clearly relished the opportunity to invoke the fiscal prosperity of the late 1990s that marked his second term as president, delivering a sparkling speech that argued that Obama deserved another four years to fix the economy. Clinton continued stumping for Obama through Election Day.

Romney’s “47 percent” remarks

America got a rare glimpse of an unexpurgated Mitt Romney in September, when Mother Jones released a secretly recorded video of the former governor speaking to wealthy donors in Florida. Taken by a small camera or cell phone resting on a table, the video captured Romney saying how he wasn’t trying to appeal to the “47 percent of the people” who will vote for Mr. Obama “no matter what.” These voters, he said, were “dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.” The video threatened to upend his campaign, and Romney, who had battled a prevailing image of him as out of touch with middle-class voters, immediately sought to contain the damage. He conceded the remarks were “not elegantly stated” and insisted, “this is a campaign about the 100 percent.” But the quote dogged him for the rest of the race.

Romney dominates first debate

It was the wrong time for the president to take a nap. Just when Obama seemed to be pulling away in the polls, Romney routed him in the first presidential debate on Oct. 3. The Republican aggressively questioned the president’s ability to rescue the economy, but Obama often seemed uninterested in fighting back. Split-screen views of the debate showed Romney castigating Obama while Obama looked down as his lectern, grimly taking notes.

As front runner, Obama appeared to have adopted a strategy of caution, which rapidly backfired. Romney immediately gained ground in the polls, and pulled within striking distance of the president. Later, after he’d had a chance to review a tape of the debate, Obama conceded that he’d screwed up. In an appearance at a charity event with Romney, Obama joked about “the nice, long nap I had in the first debate.”

An unlikely hero to emerge from the first debate was Big Bird, after Romney put the character’s employer, PBS, on his hit list of government subsidies he’d cut. Immediately, supporters of Big Bird took to social media to defend the yellow-feathered victim. That weekend, Big Bird showed up on Saturday Night Live to defend himself.

Obama went on to rally in the second presidential debate, attacking Romney as a wealthy, far-right candidate who was masking himself as a moderate. At one point, the two men got in each other’s faces, appearing as if they might come into contact.

Their third and final debate, limited to foreign policy issues, was more subdued, and this time it was Romney who took a more cautious approach, while the president used sarcasm to mock Romney’s lack of experience in international affairs.

Sandy forces a pause in the race

Hurricane Sandy pummeled the Northeast a week before Election Day, forcing the candidates to briefly suspend their campaigns. As the devastation deepened, both men held off returning to the trail until after the worst was over. Whether the storm affects the race's result is a matter of debate, as questions remain about how millions of people still without power or access to transportation will get to the polls.

Someone has to introduce the president.

On Monday, the final day of the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama, however, didn't bring along an opening act. He brought along two main acts.

Bruce Springsteen. Jay-Z. Theirs wasn't an introduction, it was pop culture moment.

The Boss was spending the entire day with Obama, traveling on Air Force One from Madison, Wis., to Columbus, Ohio, and then to Des Moines, Iowa, where Obama planned a coda for his campaign, a finale where his run for the presidency began five years ago.

Jay-Z boomed his way into Columbus's Nationwide Arena, performing a rendition of his hit "99 Problems" with a political twist for a crowd estimated by fire officials at more than 15,000 people. He changed a key R-rated word to make his own political endorsement. "I got 99 problems but Mitt ain't one," he sang.

"They tell the story of what our country is," Obama said of the two performers, "but also of what it should be and what it can be."

Springsteen added a whole new sense of vigor, even giddiness, to the Obama entourage, with many of the president's aides and advisers clearly star-struck by the rocker's presence.

Springsteen, in jeans, black boots, a work shirt, vest and leather jacket, was not wearing the typical Air Force One attire. But the Obama camp has left formality aside; many aides are growing beards through Election Day and ties have been left behind in favor of sweaters for the chilly outdoor events during the last hours of the campaign.

Asked if there was any downside to using celebrity glitz instead of substance to drive voters to the polls in the final days, Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki laughed. "I think Bruce Springsteen might be offended by you calling him glitzy," she said.

"Bruce Springsteen, and some other celebrities who have been helping us, reach a broad audience that sometimes tune out what's being said by politicians," she said.

As Psaki spoke to reporters at the back of the plane, Obama was up front and on the phone with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie discussing the recovery from Superstorm Sandy. Christie, who says he has attended more than 100 Springsteen concerts, said Obama then handed the phone to Springsteen, a New Jersey native whose songs often have been tributes to his youth in the state.

Upon landing in Columbus, Springsteen told a reporter that it was his first trip on Air Force One. Grinning, he said: "It was pretty cool." As for New Jersey, he said "I'm feeling pretty hopeful" that the state's hard-hit shore will recover

In Madison and Columbus, Springsteen serenaded audiences with renditions of top anthems "No Surrender," ''Promised Land," and "Land of Hope and Dreams." But he also has a custom made campaign song named after the Obama motto "Forward" - "Not the best I've ever written."

"How many things rhyme with Obama?" he asked.

Obama, no doubt, didn't mind.

"I'm going to be fine with Bruce Springsteen on the last day that I'll ever campaign," he said above the din of the crowd.

"That's not a bad way to bring it home. With The Boss. With The Boss"

With just five days left before Election Day, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his support for President Barack Obama in an unexpected endorsement prompted by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

The mayor, a political independent, who has been a sharp critic of both Obama and Romney, explained in an op-ed article for Bloomberg View that the superstorm—the second in 14 months to force evacuations in parts of New York City— "brought the stakes of next Tuesday's presidential election into sharp relief."

It was Obama's environmental policies that ultimately swayed the influential mayor. "Our climate is changing," Bloomberg wrote in the piece titled "A Vote for a President to Lead on Climate Change."

"While the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be—given this week's devastation—should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action," he added.

Bloomberg praised Obama's efforts to reduce carbon consumption, noting the president's work to raise fuel-efficiency standards and to adopt tighter controls of mercury emissions. But he balanced that praise with a hefty dose of criticism.

"As a president, he devoted little time and effort to developing and sustaining a coalition of centrists, which doomed hope for any real progress on illegal guns, immigration, tax reform, job creation and deficit reduction," Bloomberg wrote. "And rather than uniting the country around a message of shared sacrifice, he engaged in partisan attacks and has embraced a divisive populist agenda focused more on redistributing income than creating it."

He also expressed disappointment in Romney's shifted views on the environment, immigration, abortion rights, illegal guns and health care, noting that, "If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him, because, like so many other independents, I have found the past four year to be, in a word, disappointing."

He did praise Romney's business experience and called him "a good decent man," but boiled his final decision down to the following observations:

"One believes a woman's right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not ... One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America's march of freedom; one does not ... One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not."

He added that neither candidate "has specified what hard decision he will make to get our economy back on track while also balancing the budget" but said that what matters more is finding bipartisan solutions, which he noted Obama could do by listening "to people on both sides of the aisle" and by building the trust of moderates.

Obama said he was "honored" to have the mayor's endorsement.

"While we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the most important issues of our time," Obama wrote in a statement. "That the key to a strong economy is investing in the skills and education of our people, that immigration reform is essential to an open and dynamic democracy, and that climate change is a threat to our children's future, and we owe it to them to do something about it."

The president added that he appreciates "the extraordinary job [Bloomberg is] doing" to help his city rebound from the devastation left in Sandy's wake, and vowed to stand by New York in its time of need.  

“New Yorkers have my word that we will recover, we will rebuild, and we will come back stronger."

Three days after an unprecedented storm surge inundated parts of New York City that had never been under water, the city’s death toll had ticked up to 37, more than half a million homes and businesses were still in the dark, and the city’s transit system remained crippled.

The mayor noted in his endorsement that efforts made on the local level to take on the sort of extreme weather that had blighted parts of his city were not enough. “We need leadership from the White House.”

Bloomberg, who is in his third term as mayor, recently established a super PAC to support state, federal and local candidates from any political party, as well as independents, who share his views on same-sex marriage, gun control or school reform, The New York Times reported.

He plans to spend $10 million to $15 million of his own money to “influence national policy" around those issues one adviser told the Times.

Bloomberg endorsed President George W. Bush in 2004 and did not endorse any candidate in 2008.

“Girls” creator and actress Lena Dunham talked about her “first time” in a suggestive video for President’s Obama campaign. Her first time voting that is.

The video, released on Thursday by the Obama campaign and called "Your First Time," features the 26-year-old HBO star talking about how the president took her voting virginity.

"Your first time shouldn't be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy," she says in the video.

The video riffs on issues including the war in Iraq, health care and gay marriage, with Dunham calling Obama the candidate who “cares about and understands women.”

"My first time voting was amazing. It was this line in the sand," she deadpans. "Before I was a girl. Now I was a woman."

The video has sparked some controversy, with a writer on the conservative site Breitbart.com calling it "astoundingly tasteless".

Foreign Policy noted that the "first time" idea has also been used in another political campaign -- for an ad supporting Russia's Vladimir Putin.

President Barack Obama weighed in on the controversial rape comments made by Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock during his appearance on "The Tonight Show" Wednesday, saying "rape is rape."

The president's comments came a day after Mourdock set off a firestorm of criticism for saying during a debate that he opposes abortion even in cases of rape, since new life "is something God intended to happen." Mourdock said Wednesday that his words had been "twisted," emphasizing that God creates life, not that God wants rape to occur.

"I don't know how these guys come up with these ideas," Obama said, seizing on comments by Mourdock and earlier "legitimate rape" comments by Republican Senate hopeful, Missouri's Todd Akin. "Let me make a very simple proposition. Rape is rape. It is a crime."

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who supports abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the woman is in danger, has distanced himself from Mourdock's earlier comments.

"Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock and Mr. Mourdock's statements do not reflect Gov. Romney's views," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement.

Still, Romney stood by his endorsement of Mourdock and has refused calls by prominent Democrats to pull an ad he taped on behalf of the fellow Republican.

Obama did not directly tie Romney to Mourdock during his late-night appearance, though his campaign released a new ad late Wednesday linking the pair.

"Women are capable of making these decisions in consultation with their partners, with their doctors," Obama told Leno. "For politicians to want to intrude in this stuff, oftentimes without any information, is a huge problem."

During Obama's "Tonight Show" appearance, his third since becoming president and his fifth overall, Leno also touched on Donald Trump's ongoing grudge against the president.

Hours earlier, Trump offered to donate $5 million to a charity of Obama's choosing if he releases his college and passport applications.

Obama joked that their feud dated back to their childhood days "in Kenya."

"We had constant run-ins on the soccer fields, he wasn't very good and resented it," Obama said. "When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over."

Donald Trump’s so-called October surprise is an offer to give away $5 million to charity if President Barack Obama releases his academic records and passport applications.

“If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications, and if he gives his passport applications and records, I will give to a charity of his choice,” Trump said in a YouTube video posted to his Facebook page on Wednesday.

The “Celebrity Apprentice” host and real estate mogul had fueled speculation about what he had in store after pledging earlier this week to deliver a "very big" announcement.

“Something very, very big concerning the president of the United States,” Trump said in talking up the planned stunt on “Fox & Friends.”

Trump, who is a prominent supporter of Mitt Romney, said in his video Wednesday that Obama would be doing a “great service for the country” if he accepted the deal. The video was titled "From the Desk of Donald Trump: Major Announcement." 

Trump kicked off the video by calling Obama the “least transparent president” in U.S. history, and said he was “honored” for having succeeded in getting Obama to release his long form birth certificate – “or whatever it may be.”

Politico noted that European betting house Paddy Power had been taking wagers on possible Trump announcements (“Obama is an Alien” had 250/1 odds). Later Wednesday afternoon, Paddy Power listed the odds of Obama accepting the deal by Trump's Oct. 31 deadline as 12/1.

Obama campaign senior adviser David Plouffe brushed off the offer in comments to reporters, NBC News reported.

"Direct questions to Boston because Donald Trump is Mitt Romney's biggest supporter so he owns everything he says," he said.
 

Clint Eastwood has waded back into the presidential election, narrating a new ad in support of GOP candidate Mitt Romney.

Eastwood narrates a 30-second spot called "At Stake," saying, "If someone doesn't get the job done, you have to hold them accountable. Obama's second term would be a rerun of the first and our country just couldn't survive that."

The Hollywood legend then appears on camera to make a direct plea to voters: "There's not much time left and the future of our country is at stake."

The new ad comes after Eastwood famously took the stage in August at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, where he delivered a 12-minute scolding to an empty chair that was meant to represent President Obama.

"Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you made when you were running for election," Eastwood asked the empty chair. "I mean, what do you say to people?"

The speech went viral, inspiring a Twitter feed, and countless photos of people wagging their fingers at chairs. Even one of Romney's aides described it as "theater of the absurd."

“They vet most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood later explained. “It was supposed to be a contrast with all the scripted speeches, because I’m Joe Citizen. … I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”

Former President Bill Clinton said President Barack Obama excelled Monday night at his final presidential debate meeting with Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

"I thought it was his best debate performance and I agree with the polls. I think he won," Clinton, in Chicago for the Mortgage Bankers Association Conference, said as he exited Gibson's restaurant in the Gold Coast neighborhood.

Monday's debate focused on foreign policy issues, and Clinton said Obama impressed him.

"You could see how hard he's worked in the last four years to to master that part of the job. You could just tell. And he did a really good job. He did a good job saying it was time to do nation building here at home and he did a good job explaining that you build the defense budget from the ground up based on the security threats the country faced," the 42nd president said as he made his way to an awaiting vehicle.

 

President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wrangled Monday night over America’s place in the world, particularly the Middle East, with Obama mocking Romney's foreign policy ideas and Romney accusing the president of weakening the country's influence abroad.

The debate did not match the intensity or aggression of their Oct. 16 meeting, but the arguments were no less sharp. Their exchanges this time were a bit more nuanced, with no stunning or decisive blows.

Obama's weapon of choice was sarcasm, which he used to paint Romney as out of touch and anachronistic.

The most biting remark came in response to Romney's argument for increased military spending, in which he pointed out that the Navy was "smaller now than at any time since 1917" and that the Air Force "is older and smaller than at any time since it was founded in 1947."

Obama responded: "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines."

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Obama used a similar approach when Romney condemned the president's handling of the Arab Spring uprisings.

"What's been happening over the last couple of years is, as we've watched this tumult in the Middle East, this rising tide of chaos occur, you see al-Qaida rushing in, you see other jihadist groups rushing in. And they're throughout many nations in the Middle East," Romney said.

Obama's rejoinder: "Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaida. You said Russia... they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years.

"But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s."

Romney suggested that Obama had taken his Russia comment, in a March interview on CNN, out of context. He said that while Russia remained a "geopolitical foe," Iran was America's "greatest national security threat." Then he accused the president of handling Russian President Vladimir Putin with kid gloves.

Monday's debate marked a downshift in tone from the candidates' last match-up, a town-hall-style meeting in which Romney and Obama walked the stage, often meeting face-to-face and interrupting each other.

The most notable change came from Romney, who slipped into a more passive, relatively agreeable posture. He even agreed with Obama on several things, including the timeline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and the refusal to use military strikes on Syria.

When Romney did pounce, it was often to reiterate a central theme of his campaign: that Obama has not asserted America's goals strongly enough abroad, allowing the country's enemies and rivals, from Iran to China, to take advantage.

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"I think they saw weakness where they had expected to find American strength," Romney said. "And I say that because from the very beginning, the president in his campaign four years ago, said he would meet with all the world's worst actors in his first year, he'd sit down with (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez and (late North Korean dictator) Kim Jong-Il, with (former Cuban leader Fidel) Castro and President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad of Iran. And I think they looked and thought, well, that's an unusual honor to receive from the President of the United States."

Romney continued: "And then the president began what I have called an apology tour, of going to various nations in the Middle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness."

Obama accused Romney of making all that up.

"Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the biggest whopper that's been told during the course of this campaign. And every fact checker and every reporter who's looked at it, Governor, has said this is not true."

Obama went on to defend his record of economic sanctions against Iran, which he described as "the toughest, most crippling sanctions ever."

Then he turned to Romney, a wealthy former venture capitalist, and charged him with "investing in a Chinese state oil company that was doing business with the Iranian oil sector."

Romney agreed that economic sanctions on Iran were working but argued that those now in place don't go far enough.

"It's absolutely the right thing to do, to have crippling sanctions. I would have put them in place earlier," he said. "I would tighten those sanctions."

The debate was held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., with Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderating. Because Romney and Obama remained seated at a desk with Schieffer, there was less opportunity for dramatic confrontations.

Romney used such confrontations to his advantage in the first debate, on Oct. 3, when Obama seemed passive and disengaged. That debate that marked a turning point in the campaign. Since then, Obama's lead in the polls has slipped, and the race has narrowed to a virtual tie.

In the second debate, the contentious Oct. 16 town-hall meeting, Obama was much more aggressive, but Romney mostly kept pace.

Monday's debate was their last appearance on stage together during the campaign and a final chance to score lasting points in front of tens of millions of viewers.

The pressure was heaviest on Obama, not only to make up for the gains he'd lost but also to take full advantage of a subject — foreign policy — that naturally favors a sitting president.

Led by Schieffer's pointed questions, Romney and Obama sparred on the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, how many troops to leave in Iraq, how to handle the civil war in Syria, how much to spend on the military and the country's tumultuous negotiations with Iran, along with the implications on Israel.

The more subdued Romney preferred to make broad-stroke swipes at the president rather than disagree with finer policy points.

"Unfortunately, in nowhere in the world is America’s influence greater today than it was four years ago," Romney said at one point.

Obama countered that criticism with examples of his efforts to strike the right balance of diplomacy and force.

"The central question at this point is going to be: who is going to be credible to all parties involved?" Obama said. "And they can look at my track record, whether it's Iran sanctions, whether it's dealing with counter-terrorism, whether it's supporting democracy, whether it's supporting women's rights, whether it's supporting religious minorities. And they can say that the President of the United States and the United States of America has stood on the right side of history."

The debate was supposed to focus exclusively on foreign affairs, but neither Romney nor Obama could resist wading back into domestic issues to reprise attacks first leveled in their first two meetings. The digressions included disagreements about education policy, the economy, job growth and energy production.

Schieffer repeatedly had to pull them back to the questions he'd asked. In the debate's final minutes, Romney proclaimed his love for teachers, to which Schieffer finally said, "I think we all love teachers," and made them move on to their closing statements.