Next US President

[Greg Truby]

Denis,

Both the U.S.'s primary election system (to choose each party's candidate) and the electoral college system result in some interesting imbalances in distribution of the candidates' time. In the general election, states like Iowa & New Hampshire get some attention but not a lot. Their number of electors is low enough that losing either or both would seldom put an election in jeapordy. However they get an extreme amount of attention during the primary season because their primaries are the earliest and winning them boosts the candidate's credibility (which helps in fundraising, but may or may not be a good indicator of later success).

Due to the electoral college system, McCain basically ceded California (#1 in electoral votes) & New York (#3) to Obama and Obama essentially ceded Texas (#2) to McCain. However, Florida was not so lucky. Being #4 and winnable by either, it got lots of attention.

I grew up in Kansas, which (a) has few electoral votes and (b) has only voted democratic in two presidential elections in the past century. This means that I saw virtually zero presidental ad campaigns growing up. Indeed, the center strip of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota & North Dakota are pretty much ceded by the Democrats from the start. None of them has voted Democratic more than once since 1940. Although Nebraska is a bit of an odd duck -- they are the only state to have a unicameral legislature and they (along with Maine) are the only states that do not allocate their electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis.

Contrast Kansas to my current residence of Missouri. Missouri is frequently one of a handful of "battleground" states. We were frequently visited by both candidates and the barrage of ads on TV and radio was truly unrelenting. I, for one, am looking forward to a few weeks with no political ads!

I think "jitters" would be the word to describe America today.

Personally, I have not sensed a great deal of jitters on the part of most folks in my neck of the woods. I think most Americans could see the writing on the wall. If you know anything about politics and looked at the electoral map, the string of states that McCain would have had to have won to make it to 270 electors was so improbable that few had any real expectation that he would pull if off. Obama could afford to lose one or two or three key states and still could get to 270. McCain had zero cushion.

 

[Long Nose]

No, not jitters in who won, but "Jitters" in like,

What does Obama mean when he said:

-Heavily funded civilian militia
-Bankrupt the coal industry
-A fundamentally flawed Constitution
-Brother's keeper
-Redistribution of wealth
-Everyone needs to make sacrifices
-Immediate new spending
-Trade restrictions + Higher taxes
-If they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun
-Tax increases for those making more than...300K, 250K, 150K, 97K, ?K
-Change

Those are the jitters.

 

[Smitty]

If you know anything about politics and looked at the electoral map, the string of states that McCain would have had to have won to make it to 270 electors was so improbable that few had any real expectation that he would pull if off. Obama could afford to lose one or two or three key states and still could get to 270. McCain had zero cushion.

Unfortunately, that writing was spray painted in 10' letters on the wall. Not to many of my co-workers (who voted in both directions) seemed to grasp it though.

-Everyone needs to make sacrifices

Yippee! That'll coincide nicely with the pay cuts we're about to take here.

 

[Long Nose]

Unfortunately, that writing was spray painted in 10' letters on the wall. Not to many of my co-workers (who voted in both directions) seemed to grasp it though.

Yippee! That'll coincide nicely with the pay cuts we're about to take here.

I get the jitters not knowing what kind of country we need to change into to make Michelle Obama proud.

 

[starl]

Just a reminder to keep this polite.... if you want to post your political feelings, I'm sure there are lots of political forums out there.

 

[NateO]

Right, this forum is not intended for heated political debate or, to be honest, critical thinking of any kind. It's a Lounge, intended for light-hearted banter, nothing more.

If you have more to offer the World than the charter of this forum, that is fair enough. But, in turn, it's your responsibility to find the forum that's appropriate for that, and I assure you, it isn't on this server.

 

[Long Nose]

I didn't get much sleep last night. I need more coffee. Somebody just kick me in the pants.

Tonight bonfires yes, no fireworks though.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day.

 

[Greg Truby]

Here in the U.S., whenever the press mentions foreign countries and their take on this election, the U.S. press emphasizes that foreigners the world over see Obama's election as having something of a redemptive effect. And that it restores the view of our as a country where anything is possible.

I'm curious. Is this really how most folks overseas felt? Or is that a bunch of malarkey? Indeed, did the world pay a lot of attention? We're told it did, but our press - while free - ain't always accurate.

 

[Gerald Higgins]

Greg - I strongly support the comments in this thread about not getting too bogged down in political argument. This ain't the place for that.

Having said that, in response to your question in post #38, here in the UK at least, my impression is that the brief answer is YES (yes, that's how folks overseas felt, and yes, we paid some attention).

 

[barry houdini]

Here in the U.S., whenever the press mentions foreign countries and their take on this election, the U.S. press emphasizes that foreigners the world over see Obama's election as having something of a redemptive effect. And that it restores the view of our as a country where anything is possible.

I'm curious. Is this really how most folks overseas felt? Or is that a bunch of malarkey? Indeed, did the world pay a lot of attention? We're told it did, but our press - while free - ain't always accurate.

Salutations Greg!

I'm not sure most Brits have more than a sketchy idea how US politics works, but I think there's a general feeling that McCain would be "more of the same" whereas Obama is seen as a breath of fresh air.

However, that was how many here viewed the election of Tony Blair in 1997........it didn't really work out that way

From a coverage point of view it was pretty massive here.....and still is. The main evening (10 PM) BBC news is on right now, I expect most of it (20 of 30 minutes) to be devoted to the US elections.

Our main TV channels had coverage through the night last night and it was virtually the only news on newspaper front pages this morning.

I don't know about the rest of Europe but I expect it would have been pretty similar there.