Right now, across the North Atlantic Ocean, two men are competing to be the President of the United States. They are Barack Obama, that guy who everyone was really excited about back in 2008, and Mitt Romney, that guy who nobody has ever been excited about, ever. It’s a bit like the World Cup for political geeks, but instead of a trophy, the winner gets to be the most powerful man in the world for the next four years. So it’s kind of a big deal. After four years of Obama’s presidency, the enthusiasm for his message of hope and change has faded a tad; but Romney’s message (exactly what it is, no one is quite sure; mostly it just seems to be “Obama sucks”) isn’t looking likely to take home the presidency just yet.
The main battleground is the economy (as Bill Clinton said when asked what the key issue people voted on was: “It’s the economy, stupid”). With economic growth slow, and unemployment still high, there’s a lot of resentment towards Obama for not doing a better job. However, although the economic situation is not ideal, unemployment has been steadily falling since 2009; and when you compare this to the UK, where the unemployment rate has remained around the same since 2010 (and we’re officially in a double rip recession), any country where the number of jobs available is going up starts to look pretty good.
Not to mention the fact that the Republican controlled House of Representatives (one half of Congress, which has to agree to most of Obama’s proposed legislation in order for it to be passed) has done everything in its power to scupper Obama’s attempts at job creation. Why? Well, they hate Obama. And they want to see him gone. In fact, it’s their main aim. And they hope that if they are as unhelpful as possible, the economy will suffer, and Americans, unhappy with the state of the economy, will blame Obama and kick him out. As dirty tactics go, it’s pretty damn dirty.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is struggling to persuade Americans that he is a viable alternative to Obama. This is partly because he’s just, well, kind of boring; even his own party isn’t really that enthusiastic about him (he won the primaries because he was at least, compared to a lot of his opponents, sane). He also seems rather lacking in the courage of his convictions (he’s apparently against Obamacare, but introduced an almost identical policy when he was Governor of Massachusetts).
He’s also incredibly gaff prone; from admitting that he “likes to fire people” to saying that 47% of Americans “see themselves as victims”; and there are wider worries about Mitt’s character; in his previous life as a businessman he was quite a fan of buying companies for the purposes of leaving them bankrupt, their employees jobless and himself richer.
And alongside the problems with Romney himself, there are the problems with his party. The dominant TEA party faction of the Republican Party is not only scarily socially conservative; they are increasingly detached from reality. Senate candidate, Todd Akin, recently claimed that a woman’s body would “shut down” during “legitimate” (his words, not mine) rape, leaving her unable to get pregnant – just one example of the increasing madness permeating the Republican Party.
Obama is currently just 1% ahead in the polls, but the US’s state based election system is to his advantage; current predictions show him getting 277 of the Electoral College votes, with Romney getting 206. But a day is a long time in the world of politics, and with the election not until 6th November, Obama can’t afford to relax just yet.
Images from:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/us-election-blog/2012/10/happiness-is-a-luke-warm-gun-debate.html
http://blogs.buffalonews.com/adam-zyglis/2012/01/january-20-2012.html