United States

As the summer progressed, the 2012 presidential campaign heated up. Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, outdistanced a field of competitors that included former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum to gain the Republican nomination. Romney promised to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and pledged to limit government, preserve the Bush-era tax cuts while eliminating tax loopholes, and employ his acumen as a successful businessman to create 12 million new jobs within four years. He staked much of his campaign on his criticism of Obama’s handling of the economy.

Mitt Romney, 2010.© Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock.com

After expanding by 4.1 percent in the last quarter of 2011, GDP growth dropped to 2 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, in the first and second quarters of 2012 before rebounding slightly to 2 percent in the third quarter. Unemployment hovered between 8.3 percent and 8.1 percent for most of the year before dropping to 7.8 percent in September, its lowest level since Obama had taken office in January 2009. Obama, who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination, defended his record on the economy, promised to attack the deficit by increasing the share of taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans, and claimed that Romney’s plan for the economy did not add up.

All this unfolded as the country drew closer to the so-called fiscal cliff, the series of economic measures mandated by law to either expire or be enforced at the turn of the new year. They included the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, temporary payroll tax cuts initiated by the Obama administration, and some tax breaks for businesses, along with the automatic application of across-the-board spending cuts to the military and nonmilitary programs required by the Budget Control Act of 2011. There was fear that, absent some compromise, those measures would result in another recession.

The Benghazi attack and Superstorm Sandy

On September 11 the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked, and J. Christopher Stevens, who was serving as U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans were killed. Initially, it was thought that the attack was a spontaneous action by rioters angered by an anti-Islam film made in the United States (demonstrations had already occurred at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and elsewhere), but it soon appeared that the assault was actually a premeditated terrorist attack. The incident became an element of the presidential campaign, with Romney controversially criticizing the level of security at the Benghazi post and the administration’s response to the attack.

In the last week of October, during the final run-up to the election, a huge area of the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states was pummeled by a powerful superstorm, Sandy, that resulted from the convergence of a category 1 hurricane that swept up from the Caribbean and made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, and a cold front that descended from the north. New Jersey and New York were arguably the areas hardest hit by Sandy, as tidal surges flooded beach communities and portions of Lower Manhattan. More than 110 people died in the United States as a result of the storm, which left an enormous path of destruction and millions without power.

Superstorm SandyDowned power lines and damaged residences in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, U.S., in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, 2012.Julio Cortez/AP

Second Term

The 2012 election

In the November 6 election, Obama captured a second term, narrowly winning the national popular vote and triumphing in the electoral college by holding off Romney’s challenge in nearly all the “battleground” states. The Republicans and Democrats held on to their majorities in the House and Senate, respectively. Postelection negotiations between Obama and Boehner aimed at avoiding the fiscal cliff failed, but on January 1, 2013, a last-minute deal brokered by Biden and McConnell passed the Senate 89 to 8 and then was approved by the House 257 to 167, with about one-third of Republicans voting with Democrats during a rare New Year’s Day session. The compromise preserved the Bush-era income tax cuts for individuals earning $400,000 or less and couples making $450,000 or less annually, but it raised taxes on those earning more than that from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, the first federal income tax increase in some two decades. The bill also raised taxes on dividends and inheritance for some high-end earners but allowed the payroll tax cut that had been initiated by Obama to lapse.

Obama, Barack; votingU.S. Pres. Barack Obama voting in the 2012 general election.Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting