Obama Wins Reelection But May Not Win the Popular Vote

Impact

The race has been called and Barack Obama will be re-elected as President of the United States. What isn't clear though is if he will win the popular vote. If Obama fails to win the popular vote, it will send mixed messages to Washington and may make an already divided country even more divided.

Currently the popular vote stands at Obama's 40,243,800, to Romney's 41,237,592.

Obviously that number will change as more votes are tallied, but it does appear that Mitt Romney may win the popular vote and lose in the electoral college. This would be a devastating scenario that will make the upcoming fiscal cliff and debt ceiling debates even more of a question. Without a solid mandate from this election, President Obama's path may successfully be challenged by Republicans in the House of Representatives. Should this happen, there is no telling what will happen with taxmegeddon and the fiscal cliff.

We'll know better tomorrow morning if Obama comes back and wins the popular vote. If he doesn't, it means things could get even more interesting this December in Washington.

As a side note, Karl Rove is really mad that the race has been called for Obama and claims that it is premature and could be overturned. So maybe all of this won't matter ... I doubt it. It would be highly unusual for multiple networks to get a call this monumental wrong.