First Reads: The day after Election 2012

>>> president obama exactly 12 minutes longer to win his second term than a first one. we called the 2000 race at 11:00 . this time at 11:12 p.m . we're not even 12 hours removed from that moment yet and it's clear that the second obama term will face normous challenges in trying to resolve the country's if iscal future and create a governing coalition to make that happen in washington but, first, let's look at how the president made his victory happen. the president put together a decisive electoral college victory winning at least 303 votes to romney 's 206 and at this hour in florida where the president leads by it looks like at this moment 50,000 votes, remains too close to call where we think the vote remains should favor the president. those folks in miami-dade are going to start counting votes when they get to work this morning. but those margin of victory was smaller than in 2008 . in the end demographics and a strong turnout operation delivered the president a win in the popular vote , two points. democrats held on to control of the u.s. senate and though democrats had 23 seats to defend the caucus could still actually pick up members for the president's second term, get up to 54 seats perhaps. two senate races do remace too close to call. jon tester narrowly leads danny rehberg. also too close to call we have the house race in the 18th district where allen west is now trailing with 100% in. patrick murphy there. west may be knocked off after one of the nastiest races in the country. congresswoman michele bachmann squeaked to victory winning a fourth term early this morning. minnesota's sixth district, a squeaker there. speaking of nasty races, congressman brad sherman beat fellow democrat howard berman and that fight in the 30th district that at one point even got physical, of course. republicans kept control of the house delivering washington four more years of divided government . the president ended up losing just one of senior adviser david plouffe 's nine battleground states , and that was the state of north carolina are where romney pulled off a narrow three-point victory. the president's midwest firewall held firm. a win in ohio pushed the obama total over the 270 electoral vote threshold. the president won by six points in iowa. he beat romney by seven in wisconsin. native son paul ryan did not ultimately make ryan really that much more competitive there and then the president won out west narrowly winning in colorado and, of course, he won by what we expected, a fairly wide margin in the state of nevada . he beat romney by five points in new hampshire, the state romney 's family spends his summers. late last night virginia was called in the president's favor. and more than hurricane sandy, the employment rate , or even the auto bailout what proved decisive was cold, hard demographics. as the obama campaign predicted more than a year ago the white portion of the electorate would drop and it dropped from 74% to 72% in 2012 . the president may have won just 39% of white voters but he carried nearly eight in ten nonwhite voters including a whopping 93% of african-americans. 71% of had a tinos, and 73% of asian voters. and despite all the predictions young voters wouldn't turn out, they made up a higher percentage of the electorate than they did four years ago. that's right. a higher percentage of the electorate. romney also fell short on the issue which was supposed to be his calling card for office and which voters picked as their top concern, the economy. nearly as many said the president would be the best to better handle the economy. 49%/48% there. and they picked the president on the economic values question, who is more in touch with people like you. he won that question by ten points. the president declared the end of a bitter campaign with a speech he could have delivered at the democratic convention , could have delivered at any other point in time that he used last night as the time to call for unity.

>> i believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as scynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states . we are and forever will be the united states of america .

>> as supporters watched the president offering to meet with him in the coming days and even mentioning romney 's parents, all of them by name.

>> i just spoke with governor romney and i congratulated him and paul ryan on a hard fought campaign. from george to their son mitt, the romney family has chosen to give back to americans through public service .

>> with the tough road ahead of governing a divided country the president pledged bipartisanship.

>> you elected us to focus on your jobs not ours. and in the coming weeks and months, i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties. to meet the challenges we can only solve together.

>> on the 523rd day of his second campaign for president, more than 90 minutes after the networks projected the victory, he publicly conceded the presidential race .

>> like so many of you paul and i have left everything on the field. we have given our all to this campaign. i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction but the nation chose another leader and so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him.

>> romney spoke for just five minutes. he called on his party to accept the outcome of the race but now as a scitizen.

>> at a time like this we can't risk bickering and political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work. and we citizens also have to rise to the occasion .

>> interesting there, governor romney calling for compromise. right now the official leader of the republican party is the speaker of the house , john boehner . it will be interesting to watch how the fiscal cliff goes and where things start next year on january 5th when there is a new congress. in the end after a $ billion election, we are left with something that looks an awful lot like the status quo in washington . after fighting tooth and nail for 18 months, the president is holding on to the white house . democrats keep control of the senate and not only that may gain ground . republicans hold on to their grip on the house only losing a few seats. the june dags of the president's supporters was matched by disappoi disappointment on the other sigh. our exit polls , 49% of voters told us they have positive feelings about the obama administration. 49% say they feel negatively. a look at just how divided the country and the president is that the president has to govern, look at this. here is the question that's coming up after a status quo election will the governing be status quo , too? senate republican leader mitch mcconnell had a statement that was hardly conciliatory saying, quote, the voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term. they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do. now it's tame for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the republican controlled house of representatives and a closely divided senate. house speaker john boehner was more conciliatory. he wrote in a statement, quote, if there is a mandate, it is a mandate for both parties to find common ground . boy, totally different tones in those two messages. realize mitch mcconnell may have a tough fight for re-election, possibly for renomination and for his senate seat in kentucky. boehner makes a statement also on the fiscal cliff negotiations today at 3:30 this afternoon. will either party ultimately have a mandate in those negotiations as they go forward? will republican lawsuits produce soul-searching? does boehner and mcconnell figure out the best thing to do is do all of the compromising now, get all of the pick the scab if you will, pick your metaphor, take the medicine now and start anew when the calendar turns? it will be interesting to see the posture that they pick. all right. at this hour there are still ten races that have not been decided and several members of congress are in trouble. the open seat in arizona . arizona 's second. gabby gifford's former seat. the open seat in arizona nine uncalled. dan lun green is trailing by 200 votes. the open seat in california 26. we don't know what will happen there. 100% are in california . mary bono mack is behind. will she join her husband coming an ex-member of congress. bilbray is behind with 100% reporting in california . as we mentioned already, incumbent allen west is behind in florida 18 with all the votes supposedly counted. representative menechek is leading. that appears to be a couple thousand votes apart. mike mcintyre , will he be one of the few blue dogs that remains? he has a small lead. there will be a run-off for one house seat in louisiana, the third district. it will be between two republicans there. but if all those leads hold, nbc news is current ly projecting they could pick up eight seats in the house again. yes, we know all those 100%. mail ballots particularly out in the state of california so we'll see but if all leads hold it's a net pickup of eight seats for the democrats in