President Barack Obama: Obama

Republican Challenger Mitt Romney Dept: The first test of whether the country s deep partisan divide can be narrowed comes immediately, as Democrats under Obama s leadership try to work out a compromise with Republicans to avoid what has been called the fiscal cliff, a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts totalling $800 billion next year alone that could push the slowly recovering U.S. economy back into recession, according to The Chronicle Herald. Voters rejection of Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his party s drift to the far right of the political spectrum will surely bring a deep reassessment of strategy. The Republican base dominated by diminishing numbers of white men is shrinking, while the country moves toward a day when minorities blacks, Hispanics and Asians become the majority. Obama s second-term victory was sealed by massive minority support and wASHINGTON A victorious President Barack Obama told Americans he had never been more optimistic. The best is yet to come, he said, ticking off his legislative goals of reforming the tax system, working to ease climate change and overhauling the nation s immigration laws. Not so fast, Mr. President, came the response from Republicans, who still hold their grip on the House of Representatives. The glow of victory will quickly fade despite the president s surprisingly easy win of a second term, even though he had led the country through a period in which the economy suffered its biggest downturn since the 1930s Great Depression and stubbornly high unemployment dipped only slightly below 8 per cent in the final months of the campaign. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.