This year's U.S. Presidential election was not just a single day in November. It spanned the best part of two years. Towards the end of campaigning, political engagement was at record levels thanks to social media's presence. With catchphrases and deep-rooted satire, many took to the Web to experiment with
the rise of meme culture to roast the politicians
. The spoofs and the satire became almost the highlight of the entire event.
There was, however, a lot of talk about what might happen if New York and New Jersey -- two states hit badly by Hurricane Sandy --
could not vote
. But Americans in both states still managed to head to the polling booths and cast their vote, despite the widespread power and cellular outages across the two states.
Eventually, after more than 24 hours of solid speculation and a record amount spent on political spending, the Democrats sailed to victory. One bright spark was Nate Silver, a writer for The New York Times who was already well-known for his political Website, 538.com. Silver even became the story after he predicted the winner of every single state correctly.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, however. After Barack Obama won his second term to the White House, anti-Obama racism flooded Twitter,
particularly from the states of Alabama and Mississippi
.
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