Four more years

After months of grueling debates, frustrating social media posts and countless campaign ads, the 2012 presidential election has come to a close.

At 11:55 p.m. Tuesday, Gov. Mitt Romney conceded to President Barack Obama, kicking off Obama’s second term in office.

After Obama was announced as President of the United States, University of South Dakota students displayed their excitement in various ways, such as running through the halls of the dorms joyously chanting “Obama!” and “USA!”

Following the static excitement, students weighed in on their views of Obama’s reelection.

“I’m very happy with the outcome of the election,” first-year student Brian Saakvitne said. “Obama needed another four years to fully execute the changes he set out to make.”

Other students also shared in the excitement of Obama’s re-election.

“Obama’s going to work on what he put into place in his first term and expand on it,” first-year student Alex Levi said.

In 2008, Obama became the first African American president of the United States. He was elected to the Illinois state Senate in 1996 and became a member of the United States Senate in 2004.

During his first four years in office, Obama passed the Affordable Care Act, which could provide health care to a larger number of Americans when implemented. In 2011, he ordered the Navy Seal assault that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden. Later that year, the majority of American forces were withdrawn from Iraq and Obama announced troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014.

Obama also passed a stimulus bill to create more jobs, and has added 479,000 jobs in the manufacturing industry since 2010.

Obama believes in growing the economy from the middle-out by providing support for impoverished Americans. This includes equal tax rates between the middle and higher classes. He is a supporter of gay marriage, and believes in minimal government involvement when dealing with women’s health issues such as abortion. He is also an avid supporter of women’s rights.

Under the Obama administration, the “average middle class” family’s tax rates were lowered, the price of prescription drugs in 2011 dropped for 3.6 million Americans and the country witnessed 32 months of job growth.

Obama’s presidential campaign stands on platforms of strengthening college education through loan reform, developing American-made energy, enforcing tax cuts for small businesses and ending the war in Afghanistan in 2014.

Voters support candidates for a various number of reasons, from their views on foreign policy, to their plan on how to reduce America’s deficit.

First-year student Kerstin Tuttle said she supports Obama for a number of reasons, including his views on paying for college education, a topic that hits home for a lot of students.

“Romney’s opinion on paying for college is just to borrow money from our parents, but a lot of us don’t have the luxury of having really rich parents,” Tuttle said. “Obama realizes that there needs to be some changes in how we pay for college, which is obviously really important for us as students.”

Levi said he supports Obama for a number of other reasons.

“I support him because he wants to push same-sex marriage and gay rights, and he supports women’s rights,” he said.

Although many students supported Obama, an equal number of disappointed students supported Republican Romney.

“I don’t believe in Obama’s morals, and I don’t believe that our country is going in a positive direction with him as president,” sophomore Jaclyn Adrian said.

Many students shared the same concern regarding Obama’s ability to drag the country out of debt.

“I wasn’t really surprised when Obama won I guess,” first-year student Alice DeCook said. “I definitely didn’t want Obama to win. Romney would’ve worked more to get us out of debt, and now we’re just going to keep going more and more into it.”

Sophomore Haley Peterson shared in the grim attitude toward the nation’s debt.

“Obama is just going to run our country into more debt,” Peterson said.

Sophomore Samantha Kohnen said she was disappointed about America’s inability to change leaders after four years.

“My biggest fear deals with the new health care reform bill,” Kohnen said. “I don’t agree with it and I pray that it doesn’t pass. I feel like it will do more harm than good.”

Even though Kohnen was not happy about the outcome of the election, she said she will still support Obama as the nation’s leader.

“I’m disappointed in the turn-out, but he is the President of the United States and I will respect that,” Kohnen said.

Some students said they were surprised the election was not a closer one.

“I thought it was going to be a much closer election than it actually was,” first-year student Megan Schlosser said.

However, some students were not happy with either of the presidential candidates. Senior Brad Omland, president of the College Libertarians, said he was disheartened by the idea of either candidate leading the nation for the next four years.

“It’s going to be four more years of changeless change,” Omland said.

Omland displayed little support for Obama.

“He’s not being a good manager of his administration,” Omland said. “We’ve had 12 years of the same policies, and it’s just going to be four more years of Bush.”

Some students were simply happy the stresses of the presidential election are now in the past.

“I’m really happy that the election is over because I’m tired of people arguing over who’s better,” first-year student Nick Bell said. “I was so sick and tired of listening to campaign ads.”

Regardless of who is leading the nation, Student Government Association President Alissa VanMeeteren said it is our job to support the president.

“It’s our responsibility now to stand by the new leader,” VanMeeteren said. “He was elected, he won by a majority, and it’s our responsibility to support him.”

With the 2012 presidential election at a close, VanMeeteren said Romney and Obama’s campaigns were important for the country.

“These two candidates really stirred up the election and made it exciting to be a U.S. citizen,” she said.