COVER
For Obama, Survival Is the New Winning (U.S. Election 2012 / How He Did It)
The President figured out how to leverage a thumping re-election victory from relative weakness
Inside the Secret World of Quants and Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win (U.S. Election 2012 / How He Did It)
As they did with all the other data collected, stored and analyzed in the two-year drive for re-election, Obama's top campaign aides decided to put this insight to use
A History of the Campaign in 100 Objects (U.S. Election 2012 / Object Lessons)
From Herman Cain's cowboy hat to Stephen Colbert's super-PAC fun pack to binders, Big Bird and bayonets, objects became the visual sound bites of the 2012 election
Why the GOP Will Double Down on A Losing Strategy (U.S. Election 2012 / What's Next)
For all the punditry about a coming Republican civil war, it's not clear that the party really wants to change in any serious way — or that it could change if it wanted to
All the Right Moves ... and Some Wrong Ones (U.S. Election 2012 / Between The Lines)
Both President Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, made some smart and some not so smart decisions
Lights, Camera, Traction (U.S. Election 2012 / The Media)
A few pivotal moments proved that live TV still matters
2016: Let's Get The Party Started (U.S. Election 2012 / What's Next)
As Barack Obama and Mitt Romney fought for the presidency this fall, TIME contract photographer Marco Grob was crisscrossing the country to meet the men and women who may be doing the same four years from now
EDITOR'S DESK
The Unfinished Work That Lies Ahead (U.S. Election 2012 / Special Issue)
The headline "Now for the Hard Part" is one of the great clichés in journalism. But there's a reason it is so familiar: it's very useful, and in this case it does describe what lies ahead for President Obama
COMMENTARY
The Risks of Reviving A Revived Economy (U.S. Election 2012 / The Curious Capitalist)
The 2% economy — what caused this slow-growth cycle and what might cure it — was the make-or-break issue of the 2012 presidential election
How to Rebuild Trust — And Infrastructure (U.S. Election 2012 / Wordview)
Over the course of this campaign, commentators on both sides of the political divide seemed to agree on one point: this was a campaign about nothing. But in fact, by the standards of most elections, this was a campaign about something very big
Obama's Mandate For Moderation (U.S. Election 2012 / In the Arena)
We have reached a turning point in American history. It is no longer possible for a rural, regional, racially monochromatic political party to win the presidency. We are now, manifestly, a different country