President Barack Obama swept to a emphatic re-election win over Mitt Romney Tuesday, forging new history by transcending a dragging economy and the stifling unemployment which haunted his first term.

The 44th US president and the first African American to claim the Oval Office, was returned to power after a joyless election which appears to have deepened, rather than healed, his nation's political divides.

"In this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back," Obama said at a triumphant victory party in Chicago.

"We know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come," Obama said, striving for inspirational heights rarely touched in a campaign where the prophet of hope of 2008 became a conventional, brawling politician.

As Obama's victory was confirmed with wins in rustbelt Ohio and his spiritual political home in Iowa, large crowds suddenly materialized at the White House, chanting "four more years" and "O-bama, O-bama."

Republican nominee Romney, deflated and exhausted, offered Obama a classy tribute, as he appeared before dejected supporters in Boston, moments after phoning the US leader to formally concede and to congratulate his team.

"I wish all of them well but particularly the president, the First Lady and their daughters," Romney said.

"This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation."

Obama repaid the compliment in his speech, saying the Romney family "had chosen to give back to America through public service and that is the legacy that we honor and applaud tonight."

And in an intriguing aside, the president said he looked forward to sitting down with his former foe to find if they could find common ground to work together.

Once the euphoria fades, the president will face a tough task enacting his second term agenda, after Republicans, who thwarted him repeatedly in his first term, retained control of the House of Representatives.

Democrats kept the Senate but fell short of the 60-vote super majority needed to pass major legislation over Republican blocking tactics.

With a clutch of swing states including Florida still to be declared, Obama already had 303 electoral votes, well over the 270 needed to win the White House.

Obama paved the way to victory with a staunch defense of Democratic bastions in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, at which Romney had taken a last minute run when he saw more conventional paths to victory blocked.

He also locked in swing states, Virginia, which he became the first Democrat to win since 1964 four years ago, Nevada, Ohio, New Hampshire, Colorado and Iowa, crushing Romney's slim hopes of a viable path to victory.

Romney could only wrestle Indiana and North Carolina from Obama's 2008 account.

Obama and Romney were neck-and-neck in Florida, but the final results from the Sunshine State were not expected until Wednesday.

The win in Iowa will be especially sweet for Obama, as the heartland state nurtured his unlikely White House dreams way back in 2007 and a tear rolled down his cheek as he held his last ever campaign rally there late Monday.

His victory in Ohio represents a delayed repayment for his gutsy call in 2009 to mandate a federal bailout of the auto industry, on which one in eight jobs in the state depend and which Romney opposed.

Obama, no longer a prophet of hope and change, won re-election with a fiercely negative campaign, as he branded Romney, a former multi-millionaire corporate turnaround wizard as indifferent to the woes of the middle class.

Prior to Obama's victory, no president in 70 years had won re-election with the unemployment rate above 7.4 percent. Although the economy has created more than five million jobs since the Great Recession, the rate is now 7.9 percent.

Exit polls showed that though only 39 percent of people believed that the economy was improving, around half of Americans blamed former Republican president George W. Bush for the tenuous situation, and not Obama.

Obama's victory was a complete vindication for a campaign team that had predicted a close, but winnable election, despite the painful after effects of the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.

The president ran for re-election on a platform of offering a "fair shot" to the middle class, of fulfilling his pledge to end the war in Iraq, killing Osama bin Laden, and of building a clean energy economy.

Remarkably, his coalition of Hispanic, African American and young voters, defied expectations and turned out in similar numbers to those of his euphoric change-fueled campaign in 2008, shocking Romney's team.

Latino voters in particular helped Obama to victory in the desert state of Nevada, and in the Rocky Mountains state of Colorado, US television networks projected.

Republicans had insisted right up to election day that Obama's army, disaffected by busted expectations for his first term, would stay home, and had predicted instead a late Republican wave that would elevate Romney.

Now, Obama will get the chance to protect his historic reforms of health care and Wall Street and may have the chance to shape the Supreme Court for a generation, with several vacancies on the bench expected to arise.

Obama will also likely look abroad as he builds his legacy, but will face an immediate challenge early in 2013 and a possible decision whether to use military force to thwart Iran's nuclear program.

More immediately, at home, Obama will face a swift showdown with Republicans on Capitol Hill, on the so-called "fiscal cliff" involving the expiry of Bush-era tax cuts and a need to raise the US debt ceiling.

Ruinous budget cuts designed to trim the ballooning deficit, which could tip the economy into recession, are also about to come due, unless Obama can reach a deal with Republicans, who have opposed him tooth and nail for four years.

The president may have been helped at the 11th hour when superstorm Sandy roared ashore, killing more than 100 Americans, but giving Obama the chance to publicly pull the levers of government. (AFP)

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오바마 '역사적' 재선 성공

버락 오바마 미국 대통령이 재선에 성공했다.

오바마 대통령은 6일(현지시간) 치러진 대선에서 재선에 필요한 선거인단 과반수(270명) 이상을 확보해 경쟁자인 밋 롬니 공화당 후보를 눌렀다.

4년전 미 역사상 최초의 흑인대통령이 됐던 오바마 대통령이 재선 고지에 올라 새로운 역사를 쓰게 됐다.

미국 동부지역에서 오후 6시부터 투표가 끝난 이후 진행된 개표에서 오바마 대통령과 롬니 후보는 숨막히는 박빙의 승부를 펼쳤다.

개표 초반 롬니 후보에 한때 뒤지기도 했던 오바마 대통령은 최대 경합주인 오하이오주(선거인단 18명)에서 꾸준히 앞서가며 전세를 역전시킬 발판을 마련했다.

결국 위스콘신주와 또다른 핵심 경합주인 플로리다에서 승리하며 오바마 대통령은 이날 오후 11시15분께 승기를 잡았다.

CNN방송 등 미국의 주요 언론들은 이때를 기점으로 일제히 "오바마 재선 성공"을 알렸다.

오바마 대통령은 핵심 경합주 외에도 북동부와 중북부 지역, 그리고 55명의 선거인단이 걸린 캘리포니아를 포함한 서부 지역에서 승리한 것으로 집계됐다.

반면 롬니 후보는 남부와 중부 지역에서 강세를 보였으나 오하이오와 위스콘신, 아이오와 등 중부 경합주 경쟁에서 밀리면서 패배했다.

CNN방송은 이날 오후 12시30분 현재 오바마 대통령이 290명의 선거인단을 확보한 것으로 전했다. 롬니 후보는 201명에 그쳤다.

오바마 대통령은 한때 뒤졌던 전국 득표율에서도 동률을 기록하고 있으며 역전 가능성이 높은 것으로 관측된다.

재선이 사실상 확정된 뒤 오바마 대통령은 자신의 트위터를 통해 "우리는 모두 하나가 됐다. 그것이 우리가 선거운동을 한 방식이었고 그게 바로 우리"라며 "감사하다"고 당선 소감을 밝혔다.

밋 롬니 미국 공화당 대통령후보는 이날 새벽 보스턴에서 지지자들을 상대로 한 연설 중에 "버락 오바마 대통령에게 전화를 걸어 승리를 축하한다는 뜻을 전했다"고 밝혔다.

오바마 대통령은 재선 이후 미국의 통합을 위해 노력할 것으로 보인다. 특히 재 정적자 누적으로 '재정절벽' 가능성까지 거론되고 있는 미국 경제의 재건이 가장 큰 과제가 될 것으로 예상된다.

롬니 후보가 패배한 것은 오바마 대통령을 대체할 대안으로서의 위상을 과시하지 못한 것이 결정적이라는 평가다.

또 선거 과정에서 불거진 '미국민 47% 무시발언'을 비롯해 유권자들에게 부정적인 인상을 지우지 못한 것도 요인으로 지적된다.

여기에 1차 대선후보 TV 토론회 이후 상승세를 타던 기세가 선거 직전 미국 동부를 강타한 허리케인 '샌디'로 인해 꺾인 것도 부정적인 영향을 미친 것으로 전문가들은 보고 있다.