Tuesday, November 06, 2012

U.S. Election Day 2012

Finally after a hopelessly long and relatively uneventful campaign, devoid of the entertainment of so many previous elections, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney battle it out in polling stations across the United States of America today. The voting which begun first in the Eastern states will bring an end to a hard-fought race that began nearly two years ago and has cost more than $2bn. Both candidates are polling so close, it’s impossible to say who could have the upper hand despite the incumbent Obama holding a hair’s-breadth lead in the crucial swing-states.

The election is decided by a bizarrely confusing to many ‘electoral college’ system. Each state is given a quantity of electoral votes in “rough proportion” to the population. The candidate who attains 270 such votes by prevailing in the state becomes the nations president. Squadrons of elite election and constitutional lawyers have already descended to the critical battleground states, especially Ohio, anticipating the mire of a strong legal battle for the state’s vote not seen since Florida in 2000.


The candidates spent Monday frantically campaigning the crucial battleground states including Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia, making final appeals for votes by pushing their supporters to the polls and  convincing the undecided to vote for them. Romney kept up his attack on Obama's record, reciting statistics illustrating the president’s failure to lift the US economy out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. In turn the president appeared at rallies with celebrities Bruce Springsteen and  Jay-Z, acknowledging peoples frustration with the still-lagging economy but told voters "our work is not done yet… We've come too far to turn back now."

Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post, has spotted something "new and unusual about Mr Romney". "In the waning days of the campaign, Romney was uplifting, optimistic and inspirational." According to Sam Stein in the Huffington Post, Monday's late-night rally in Iowa emphasised how President Barack Obama's "business-like" second White House run lacked the "hope narrative" of the first. Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny in the New York Times said Obama's team believed it had rebuilt its coalition of support "just enough to win".

While the change/no change in the POTUS is far less significant than last week’s acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney, I’ll still be providing a forward looking analysis of what either “staying the course” or “under new management” will mean for the world.

Best of luck to both candidates.

Source: BBC / Fox

10 comments:

Former Grunt said...

I'm callin' 'Bama fer 4 more.

Civilian Overseer said...

It isn't even close at all,

Do the maths,

if Romney wins,
all of his own states, 206
the states leaning to him, 26
all of the swing states, 28

and

Obama wins,
all his own states, 237
the states leaning to him, 41

the result is,
Obama 278
Romney 260

So clearly Romney needs to win

all of his own states, 206
the states leaning to him, 26
all of the swing states, 28

and one of Obama's either Michigan or Pennsylvania.

It looks like Romney has a much harder task then Obama has to clear the magic no. of 270.

So it's not a close race at all.

vaughan said...

so Obama won , yayyyy???!?!?!

the best of a bad choice as unemployment appears to be climbing back up and the Libya controvesy rolling on for another couple of months , the Senate and congress remain divided ....jeez if he's the best choice it terrifies me what Romney would have been like!

Former Grunt said...

I guess it's the same old story then for another four years? Roll on Jeb Bush in 2016!

Vaughan said...

the commentators are already predicting the end of the "republican" party....don't think so , more likely the end of the Tea Party and a return to the centrist Republicans..and a Republican president in 2016

Constance said...

Suck it, Vaughan. You're just mad that I was right and you were wrong:

"You're mad Constance! Obama will never win! There is only one conclusion! Mitt Romney will win the election and be the most powerful man in the world!"

Me: nope.

So...

Pog mo thoin. Is feidir linn!

Stephen Gibney said...

If the Republicans could only produce a candidate of their previous high calibre, remember this is the party of Lincoln and Reagan after all, then I sure they could and would win the presidency again.

The issue is that their traditional voter base has narrowed somewhat in recent years and will continue to narrow in years to come, so they will need to broaden their support, it won't have been the first time.

vaughan said...

really constance really?

Still if you need to vote out of a need for "revenge" as the president said to on Saturday..and not out of some democratic right ...good for you.

Constance said...

Yes John. I convinced over half the country to vote for Obama just to say "nyah nyah nyah" to you. That's how this happened!

Anonymous said...

Reps have far better ideas when it comes to Foreign Policy but they fail miserably on social issues where the Democrats have it cornered.

Both parties have a toss up between their economic prowess and that's what happened here. The vote was so close because this was literally a coin toss.

Had the social adgenda or foreign policy mattered to citizens at all this time around we'd have seen a very different outcome.