I have been following just about every election thread with quite a lot of interest. I didn’t join in on any because … well I thought it inappropriate. Obviously I had my hopes for the outcome. And finally you US dudes and dudettes delivered!
I have to admit and guess I should apologise for my preconception that you would return a Romney/Ryan ticket. You had done your duty electing Barak the first time but could now get back to looking for the next racially acceptable dude.
I listened to all the speeches and saw the performances by Mr Insipid and Mr Vacuous. I thought they were dreadful!
But I strongly suspected that inherent racism and the power of Faux news would sway the electorate to return to the party of fear, hate bigotry and religious righteousness. (You can guess why I didn’t join in any other election threads)
The rise of the Tea Party, to my thinking, was mainly a reaction to electing Mr Obama. I guessed it was a fire fanned by Faux news to become the movement it was. I have to admit that I suspected that the second term could be a challenge.
But a second term? Wow! You guys have matured, the right has been snubbed a second time. A victory for tolerance and social equity.
I’m happy for a more selfish reason - Obama’s victory (and more importantly, Romney’s loss) is a major blow to Bibi Netanyahu’s reelection chances in January. There’s a lot of crow being eaten in Jerusalem this morning.
I am foreign-born, but pay taxes in the US. You can see how that can get ugly. I couldn’t care much about taxes, but all the hatred for minorities women and homosexuals was terribly offputting. I am nearly as glad for some of the downballot victories as I am happy about Obama winning a second term.
Gay marriage winning all referenda? I am glad I lived to see that.
My American wife voted Obama and is pleased (although she said she voted for him unenthusiastically - he wasn’t left-wing enough for her).
We’re also pleased because her parents are Tea-partiers and will be rather despondent this morning. We’re not sure whether to anticipate or dread the inevitable catchup phone call - probably the latter.
Apparently the word reentered the vocabulary in the last week, after Sandy hit. I’m hopeful to see Obama deliver on a few things like this that he couldn’t the first time around.
Anyway, here in Germany Obama would have won the vote with over 90%, so pretty much everybody is happy.
Difficult to talk about this (IMO) given that the political spectrum in the US is more to the right of the political spectrum here in Europe (and in the UK). I can’t fathom a situation where I (were I to emigrate and take citizenship, etc) would vote Republican, so I suppose I am happy enough. It’s still (just about) America’s world and we’re all along for the ride, so I guess it makes me a little easier when the guy who is in charge is more closely aligned with what I think.
My girlfriend is from Hawaii via MA and is delighted with the outcome.
Most interesting questions for me: what now for the Republican party in terms of alignment/strategy for the next Presidential election? I’d also want to know what Obama is going to do now - given he doesn’t have to run again, I’d like him to be somewhat bolder (though Congress may not help) And, given I work in research, I am also interested professionally in a decent breakdown on the strengths and weaknesses of the various polling organisations’ approaches/samples/questionnaires, etc. These events always provide a decent amount of thought provoking data for those of us wondering about questionnaire neutrality and what not (even if we don’t work in the political realm).
Canadian here, and I am deeply relieved that President Obama has won his second term. I have been way too engrossed in the US election for quite a while. But our late Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau put it best when he said “Living next to you (the USA) is like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or even-tempered is the beast, if one can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
Seriously, for this Canadian most Democrat platforms are too conservative for me. I found Mr Clinton a step in the right direction. I really wanted to see Mr Gore become president. I never thought Kerry would win for any reason except as a reaction to Mr George W. Bush. I was torn during the 2008 primaries…Obama or Hillary? But for all the flaws and slow start, I am happy Mr Obama won his second term.
My second relief is that Todd Akin and Robert Mourdock lost their bids for senate seats. That kind of misogynistic crap here in Canada would have a politician kicked out of caucus here, even by the Conservatives.
I’d like to see the Republican Party get back to the idea of standing for something positive instead of being built around nothing more than attacking the Democrats.
I’m pretty happy Obama won. It’s a bit reassuring when the most powerful country in the world elects someone who seems like a decent, clever, bloke. Mind you, most of the Presidents I mind in my lifetime have been like that: Carter, GHWB, Clinton.
I gotta say, whenever I watch this spectacle (and I was fervently hoping for an Obama win, BTW), it puzzles me to no end that you can’t seem to get the hang of this election thing at all.
You spent untold hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising money, but apparently not a single cent on running the bleeding election! You have electronic voting machines, but lines in front of your polling stations making it necessary to vote until late at night, on a Tuesday, to boot. We over here use pens, paper, and modified trashcans, on a Sunday, and voting is a matter of two minutes. People volunteer to do the supervision and counting, and we have the first reliable trends half an hour after voting ends.
And, in a probably puzzling inversion of priorities, it’s rather more damaging to a politician when he is caught in a lie than it is to call a liar a liar. Also, while our politicians are not necessarily always honest, a pronouncement such as “we will not be bothered by facts” would spell the speedy end to a career here.
So, much as I love you guys: you’ve got one heck of a freaky way of doing politics…
I’m not sure if you’re in Canada or not, but that applies to us, too. If you are in Canada, yeah!
My response to Pres. Obama winning again - “Four more years of getting nothing done. Yay.” Not totally his fault, but this doesn’t really change anything, does it?
