The US elections are wide open. Anyone can win; the polls show that Obama and Romney are virtually tied, the future is uncertain and the elections are only six months away, anything can happen.

Normally a president in the United States is reelected, the history of the country has shown it, if everything in the country goes the way it should, reelection is almost certain.

Obama won the election in an historical campaign; he was seen as the new hope, Bush government didn’t end well so the Republican Party was very weak, Obama took advantage of their weakness to become stronger, he declared himself the anti-Bush because he knew that the country had a common enemy and it appears that he learned well in school that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

John McCain, a former war hero, who competed against him had no chance of winning, he was seen as a continuation of George Bush, so Obama was elected president and the Democrat party returned to the white house.

Most of the world thought Obama would be a great president, one of the reasons they elected him was because the country was tired of the war on Iraq, and Obama promised to bring the troop backs very soon.

But the economy had other plans, and Obama’s government has not been as good as expected, the financial crisis has been rough, and something that you have to know is that when the economy is bad, people forget about anything else and just focus in their pockets and will vote for anyone that will give them a little economic relief, during this times of crisis what will determine who will win an election are not your social policies or a new stadium you are planning to build, what will really make you win is how many new jobs you promise to create or if people really believe that you would not increase taxes.

Economy has been the Achilles Heel of Obama’s government, and it doesn’t seems that things would get better in the next six months, they might just get worse depending on what happens in Europe, which is involved in an uncertain situation with the victory of the socialist Francois Hollande in France and with the results of the elections in Greece where the two major parties don’t have enough parliamentarians to form a government, so the elections may be repeated.

Mostly the economic issue could convert Mitt Romney into the next United States president; he would try to take advantage, like Obama did in the past election, of the hope of the people that with a new government thing would get better.

He would try to magnify Obama’s political mistakes so people would associate economic crisis with Obama, it’s a fact that we are immersed in a worldwide economic crisis and that it has not been Obama’s fault, but Romney would try to show the people that if the government had acted they way they should, then the United States would be out of the crisis by know.

Obama’s electoral campaign has a clear goal: to reconnect his government with the liberal sector of the country, witch has been the traditional sector that votes the Democrat party, that’s why a few days ago he announced that he supports gay marriage, he also wants to attract Hispanic and Afro-American voters who are disappointed with him.

Mitt Romney has one clear advantage over Barrack Obama and it is that he is perceived as a moderate republican, the contrary of Rick Santorum, because he was governor of Massachusetts, which is one of the most liberal states in the country.

The disadvantage is that he has less charm than Obama and also he is not such a good speaker as Obama. Also Romney has been a very successful businessman so Obama is trying to persuade the voter to perceive Romney like the typical rich that is trying to acquire political power to favor the big corporations.

But Romney could take advantage of the fact that he is a good businessman by counterattacking Obama saying that in order to create more wealth the United States needs a men who has been a good CEO, not someone like Obama who doesn’t understand about business and failed in his presidency.

Only time would tell who would win the election, and unless something extraordinary happens, that favors or dooms a candidate; it would be almost impossible to be certain of who will win this election. The strategies are already set, so now we have just to wait for the country to respond.

Image Courtesy of   Third Way

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

About the author

Gerardo Jose Torres Montalvo
Student of Philosophy and Journalism in Universidad de Navarra, Spain. Interested in world politics, especially in Latin American issue and in political philosophy. I was born in the United States, but raised in El Salvador.