Race politics wins the day for Obama

1. Obama tweeted to his 22 million followers, “This happened because of you. Thank you.”

UPDATED: Open thread: US presidential election (discussion)

This thread will be updated periodically until the final result is announced.

Update #9 (4.06pm) — As of 1 a.m EST, Obama had 50,237,808 popular votes and Romney, 50,113,942 (a small difference of 123,866) but his margin on the electoral college votes is huge 303 to 206 with only Florida pending – see map below.

Put in terms of ratio, the electoral college votes for Obama to Romney is 3:2 whereas their popular votes 50.2 million to 50.1 million is a dead heat. Lesson of the day: It’s the SYSTEM!

Look at the underlying system and don’t be fooled by the rhetoric.