Barack Obama, the post-partisan candidate of hope who became the first black U.S. president, won re-election today by overcoming four years of economic discontent with a mix of political populism and electoral math. Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney, according to television network projections that show the president winning the electoral votes needed for re-election. Beginning more than a year ago, Obama and his advisers cast the president as a champion of middle-class opportunity pitted against an opposition party more determined to protect preferences for the wealthy. “After all that we’ve been through ... (full story)