Barack Obama

It’s game day in Charlotte. The Carolina Panthers host their first home playoff game in 5 years Sunday afternoon at Bank of America stadium – facing the San Francisco 49ers at 1 o’clock.  The Panthers won their meeting in Week 10 of the season at San Francisco, a low-scoring game that ended 10 to 9.  After last week off, the Panthers are 12-4 and have won six of their last seven games. The 49ers also are 12-4. The stakes today are high: The winner goes to the NFC Championship game against Seattle. The Seahawks beat the New Orleans Saints yesterday, 23 to 15. 

President Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term last night in race that see-sawed back and forth late into the night. This time four years ago, it was still unclear which way North Carolina had gone in the presidential race. Not so today. Republican Mitt Romney won the state by 96,000 votes – dealing a blow to local Democrats.

Join us for “the morning after”… we’ll talk about Tuesday’s Election results, from local, regional and gubernatorial to the presidential election. Who are our new leaders? What does their election mean for our region, our state and the nation? We’ll do our best to give you the answers with WFAE reporters and political scientists, when Charlotte Talks.

First Lady Michelle Obama rallied a few thousand supporters in a hangar at the Charlotte airport this afternoon. It was the last major Obama campaign event in North Carolina of the 2012 election.  WFAE's Julie Rose was there and joined WFAE's Mark Rumsey by phone from the rally. 

RUMSEY: Julie, why did Michelle Obama come here today?

With the word last week that the Romney campaign was feeling “confident enough about North Carolina … to shift staff out of the state” on the same day as in-person early voting started, it might be wise for them to consider some past history and the first couple of days worth of early voting.

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right? There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement, and that government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49 -- he starts off with a huge number.