Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. U.S. President Barack Obama ran uncontested in the Democratic primaries, but the Republicans had a lively primary season. At any given time the following list of candidates had a lead in the polls: Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Rick Perry. Mitt Romney eventually secured the nomination by successfully fending off what more socially conservative opponent?
2. With Mitt Romney's successful bid to take the Republican nomination, the general election was on. President Obama's campaign decided early on that its strategy would involve attacking Romney's business experience in venture capitalism. Though some campaign surrogates went temporarily astray from the line of attack (Newark Mayor Cory Booker and President Clinton), Obama's allies quickly rushed to hammer Romney for working at what firm?
3. With the economic situation in the U.S. still tenuous, and with Americans still dour, the Romney campaign strategy was to focus on the economy, jobs, and the deficit. As another way to rally social and fiscal conservatives in one fell swoop, Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate. What position had Ryan held before his selection as the vice presidential candidate?
4. Likely Obama's most important surrogate, former President Bill Clinton was staunch in his support. His speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, was said to outshine the president himself. This led Obama to dub Clinton the "Secretary of" what?
5. While both campaigns were certain to make gaffes in this Internet-clip media-obsessed world, e.g. "You didn't build that" (Obama) and "I like being able to fire people" (Romney), perhaps the greatest and most influential gaffe of the campaign came when a secretly-taped video of Mitt Romney surfaced telling a group of donors that he couldn't convince what percentage of people to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives"?
6. President Obama was leading in the polls and had been buoyed by his convention. It was now October and he was heading to Denver to debate Mitt Romney. Did Obama increase his lead in the polls with his first debate performance?
7. With drone efforts targeting al-Qaeda and the combat mission eliminating Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama had reversed the traditionally Republican strength on foreign policy in the 2012 election. Governor Romney meant to mitigate that advantage by attacking Obama for his handling of the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in what foreign city?
8. With the election to be decided in around nine battleground states, the campaigns began to let their election funds loose and stump restlessly. While all the states were indeed important, one state in particular was considered the tipping point state. What state (arguably the most important to the campaigns' electoral strategies) did statistician Nate Silver give nearly a 50% chance of being the one to tip the election?
9. The term "October surprise" in American politics refers to a major and uncontrollable event which has the capacity to alter the state of an election, mainly because the event comes late enough to be square in the minds of the electorate as they are voting. What event could be considered the "October surprise" in the 2012 U.S. presidential election?
10. In the end, Barack Obama won reelection in 2012, yet the presidential election wasn't the only thing that brought voters to the polls. For the first time in U.S. history, voters in Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Colorado approved what two ballot measures?
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