It seems to me as if there were a few winners coming out of this election...
The first obvious one is, of course, Barack Obama. He got successfully reelected, gaining not only a strong majority of electoral votes (332 vs 206), but also won in the popular vote (50.8% vs 48%, or roughly a lead of almost 3 million votes as of today). He ultimately is the first reelected Democrat since FDR that got 50% of the popular vote (the others won with the Electoral College votes). I would like to ask: why so little? But I will console myself with this historic victory and appreciate the glorious few moments, until the Republicans come into the House again and keep blocking everything and anything that Obama might want to propose...
The next (unelected) winner is, of course, Nate Silver. His statistical model correctly predicted the wins and loses in 50 out of 50 states (in 2008 election, he missed Indiana, with Obama unexpectedly winning there by a 0.1% margin). He ran his algorithms, tested on baseball predictions for a few years prior, and figured that Romney had but a 40% chance of winning from the very beginning (and decreasing as the time went on). But us, the eternal skeptics, didn't believe him until Obama was officially called. Now we know his math was right, and it was perfectly right. The numbers didn't lie, and he proved to be mastering them (and all the poll data he needed to process) to an exceptionally trustworthy (his model is 100% neutral, even if he's a registered Democrat), and accurate levels.
Last, but not least, the collective winners of this election are the people. The Americans picked a president that stands on their side, that understands them, that connects with them in a real way. A president that is against wars and for education, progress and peace (may he prove it to the world and the Nobel Committee that his Peace Prize was well deserved). The stock markets might have plunged a little bit today (investors are worried about Obama and his economic plans, as they might get more hit this time), but the middle class is ready for the challenge of its resurrection.
On the side note, it seems like not only the American people are the winners. The immigrants in America, and the rest of the world will be affected, too. America will get another chance with this president to regain its respect that she lost during the Bush administration. As a Polish person, I sure hope the president will take care of the visas to the US that are still demanded from my co-citizens, but it's not Obama's priority -- and it shouldn't be, when it comes to foreign policy. There are wars to take care of (i.e. end), international peace and relations to mend. Obama might not have the ultimate solution, he also isn't a wizard, but he is a leader of a country that needs to be involved in peace-making, and may he do his job well.
To conclude, it seems like everybody's a winner! :-)
This is also somewhat what Obama said in his victory speech at 2am in Chicago:
"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. And we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come."
"We are not as divided as our politics suggests. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America."
The best is yet to come. We are all winners of this election.
