Many people – half of the people to be exact – want to know how Barack Obama won a second term as president Nov. 6.

It's a great question. The Obama four-year record was so abysmal that surely he was destined to be a failed one-term president, right?

Wrong! Here's how he did it:

To win a second term, Obama trashed half of the country. You can't burn down the house and then expect to rule anything but ashes.

It was brilliant politics. But it can lead to disastrous governance.

Obama strategically cobbled together a winning coalition by dividing America by race, gender, economic status – whatever it took. 

In order to win the vote of single women, Obama preached that he would protect abortion and provide free contraception for all. Mitt Romney would overturn Roe vs. Wade all by himself.

It worked. Obama won the single women's vote, which largely made the difference.

For our Hispanic population, there was the Obama Immigration Executive Order that even he previously said that he didn't have the authority to do.

It worked, and Obama won 70 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Obama flip-flopped on his public position regarding gay marriage. He was for marriage equality.

Obama successfully pounded home his support of student loan opportunities. Obama taunted that Romney told you to get a loan from your parents.

The taxpayer auto bailout worked like a charm and won Obama the state of Ohio by a narrow margin. 

Obama relentlessly campaigned and even filed lawsuits challenging several state voter identification laws. They basically campaigned that you're a racist if you believe that a person should present ID at the polls. Even the ludicrous United Nations election monitors couldn't believe that we don't require voter ID to cast a ballot. 

Obama demonized Romney.

He received a huge assist from former President Bill Clinton. Obama couldn't run on his indefensible record, so he ran on Clinton's. 

The malpractice by the pro-Obama American media was at an all-time low. They highlighted any gaffe, no matter how small, that Romney made, and they ignored any gaffe or problem regarding Obama.

The debate moderators, particularly Candy Crowley, were obviously pro-Obama. Crowley resorted to assisting Obama during the second debate on the Benghazi question.

Crowley's effort basically took Benghazi off of the table from that point forward.

CBS News had a videotape of Obama from Sept. 12, the day after the terrorist attack at our consulate. They knew that Obama lied during the debates. They hid this from the American people.

Romney would have been able to overcome it all, except Hurricane Sandy stepped in.

Let me take this opportunity to hold our governor, Chris Christie harmless. The governor did his job. He has done it exceptionally well, exhaustively well. The fact that the governor partnered with the president in the last week of the election when New Jersey was hit with the first direct landfall Hurricane in 108 years was the absolute right thing to do.

However, make no mistake about it. Hurricane Sandy stopped the campaign and Romney's surge in its tracks. Romney was basically off the campaign trail for more than four days. Even worse was that Romney was removed from the national news cycles for four-plus days.

And even when the national media began to cover the campaign again, they reported it from the lens of "Obama and Romney have resumed the campaign." 

Even worse (politically), Hurricane Sandy allowed Obama to put on his commander in chief bomber jacket and barnstorm the Northeast. 

He hugged ravaged citizens. He had priceless video, audio and photo opportunities that could not be duplicated by any campaign efforts employed.

It erased the hard edge that Obama created by his ultradivisive and negative campaign. Obama's approval numbers had plunged. The specter of a natural disaster of this magnitude changed everything. It was "The October Surprise." The hypernegative campaign was the only strategy Obama could employ to win the election. 

Obama had been paying a heavy price. Hurricane Sandy changed all of that. And by all means, don't take my word for it. The exit polls showed that 42 percent of voters confirmed that Hurricane Sandy played a "significant" role in their decision. 

It was almost surreal to watch Obama's closing argument that "Voting is the best revenge." This was stunning. By contrast, Romney closed with "Americans should vote for love of country, with clear eyes and full hearts.”

Incredulously, "revenge" won this time.

Hence, welcome to the Divided States of America – a nation split almost exactly 50-50.

Harry Hurley is president of Harry Hurley Consulting and Communications LLC. He hosts the daily talk radio program "Hurley in the Morning" 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Townsquare Media, ESPN 1450 AM Radio. He has hosted various programs for local television and is the editor and publisher of his news and information website, www.harryhurley.com. Send comments to Harry  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .