The debates leading up to the presidential election were heated, to say the least. Now that President Barack Obama has won, that hot air is not just going to float away. To let off some steam, residents of at least 20 different states, including Missouri, have signed petitions to secede from the United States because President Obama was reelected. Rock Bridge senior Adam Schoelz thinks such petitions will neither help to resolve the divide in between the Republican and Democrat parties or the broader split ripping across the United States.. He said the notion of secession is preposterous.