PAOerfulone said: Was 2012 really THAT close? I was in my junior year of high school at the time and the general consensus at school was that Obama was going to get reelected. |
It sort of was... but also not really.
On a national level it was close. In the electoral college it wasn't.
Florida was won by about 1%. Ohio by 2%, and Virginia by 3%. Romney won North Carolina by 2%.
Even if Romney had retained North Carolina, and won in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, Obama would have still won the election, albeit by a very narrow margin. In that scenario, Romney still would have had to win in Colorado, where he lost by about 4.7%.
So, the popular vote was somewhat close, but there still wasn't an easy path for Romney to win. Even if Romney had performed 3.8% better in the national, he still probably would not have won the electoral college.