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\nThe 57th Presidential election in American history took place on November 6, 2012, my 31st birthday. Oh crap, I'm getting old. Barack Obama became President as the economy really sucked. It was known the Great Recession, and the Obama...\nThe 57th Presidential election in American history took place on November 6, 2012, my 31st birthday. Oh crap, I'm getting old. Barack Obama became President as the economy really sucked. It was known the Great Recession, and the Obama administration's solution was to have the federal government micromanage the economy in a way somewhat similar to Franklin Roosevelt's administration. Then again, the George W. Bush administration micromanaged quite a bit, too. Obama continued the bailouts of corporations, but also of ordinary people, and Obama signed laws like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to try get the country out of the recession. By 2012, the recession was over, but the economy just trudged along. It was nothing to get too excited about. And the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting poorer. This led to unrest on both sides of the political spectrum, with The Tea Party movement on the right, and Occupy Wall Street on the left. Still, Obama kept a campaign promise by bringing the troops home from Iraq. Well, kind of. We still have military bases there. Obama did send more troops to fight in Afghanistan, and we are in fact still there fighting right now. Obama also sent troops to Libya and expanded the drone strikes in several countries to continue the War on Terrorism, especially in Pakistan. Speaking of Pakistan, on May 1, 2011, U.S. Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden, the dude who claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, after they found him hiding seemingly in plain sight in Pakistan. Of course, the most famous and probably biggest accomplishment during Obama's term in office was his signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The main objectives of the law were to make sure everyone had health insurance and to lower the cost of healthcare. The Democratic Party still loved Barack Obama, and he was easily renominated, along with the 47th Vice President in American history, Joe Biden. Hi Joe! The Republican Party, meanwhile, had some division. Yet again, quite a few nominees competed for their nomination. The leading four were former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, back again trying for the nomination after not getting it in 2008, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, also back a second time trying for the nomination after not getting it in 2008, Rick Santorum, a former Senator from Pennsylvania, and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, who led the Republican Revolution of 1994. I have to mention that Gingrich used to teach both history and geography at the University of West Georgia. The Republican candidates had some heated debates and definitely disagreed on several issues. It seemed like it would be tough for the party to unite behind one candidate. But they somehow did. They nominated Mitt Romney, although many Ron Paul supporters resisted his nomination, and Paul himself did not endorse Romney. Romney was the first Mormon to be nominated by a major party to run for President. Romney picked Paul Ryan, a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin, as his running mate. The Libertarian Party had gained a lot of momentum, probably because of the popularity of Ron Paul. They nominated Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico for President, with Jim Gray, a former judge, as his running mate. Johnson originally tried for the Republican nomination but wasn't doing so well so instead joined the Libertarian Party. But yeah, don't you know we have a two party system, Mr. Beat? The campaigns for Obama and Romney broke records for the amount of money spent and the amount of negative campaigning. This was the first presidential election after the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, which opened the door for unlimited election spending by corporations. Most of that spending went toward super PACs, or groups trying to drive public policy or get politicians elected without directly working with any candidates or political parties. At the debates, Romney talked about (clip of binders of women), but also was critical of Obamacare, even though he was known for Romneycare, which was a similar initiative passed by Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts.\n
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\n\nMr. Beat\n\n
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