The US elections were held two days ago and Obama won another 4 years in office as President. We were so fortunate to be here for the elections, I've never really followed the US elections, so this was interesting and fun to watch.
Having watched the third debate and election results, to me it seems like a big, over-the-top popularity contest, to see who can get the most "likes". I was surprised to find out that only about 100 million Americans voted - so this is only about a third of the total population! So if the winning party gets half the votes, in reality only 15% of the population voted for them and 85% of the population actually didn't. Surely a third of the population is not representative. I also learnt that not all the parties are listed on the ballot (like in South Africa where we list all 15 or so parties on a long ballot sheet), that they usually the 'top 2' - surely all parties deserve a space on the ballot sheet.
Apparently each of the top 2 parties spent about a billion dollars on their campaign - really exorbitant! espectially for a country that owes $16 trillion in debt.
The live debate reminded me of a Jerry Springer show where people are pointing the finger at others and taking stabs at each other. When Obama came out with his family to give his celebratory speech it felt like a rock concert - loud music, lights, party streamers, people jumping up and down chanting 'Four more years'. The celebration when he finished his speech was like the announcement of a reality TV show winner like Idols - balloons and party streamers all around, people coming onto the stage to congratulate the winner, etc.
I really do think that the live debates are a great way for the public to see the candidates in action. We do not have these live debates in South Africa, we really should. This really does give you a sense of the person's intelligence and ability to handle tough questions and accusations.
I suspect many people vote based on who they like and not the policies which they believe in. I think that many people who voted for Obama last time have been disappointed but with Romney the only alternate (if he had won this would have caused a disruption in the current already-struggling government and his radical leadership is also bit unknown) they had no choice but to vote for Obama again. Similarly, many people who voted for the Republicans last time didn't want to vote for Romney so had no choice but to vote for Obama this time.
Good luck to the President, he has a big challenge ahead, with massive debt, resource shortages, frustrated citizens, China looming, natural disasters and many angry enemies.
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