Monday, November 5, 2012

The Future President of the United States of America

Who will be the President of United States of America?

Rarely in American politics have voters been offered two presidential candidates more different than Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  Just how different is the subject of The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney, an incisive and intimate profile of the two presidential candidates that investigates how they've governed, and the places, people, and decisive moments that made them the men they are.  More than 100 in-depth interviews with friends, family, authors, and journalists contribute to the most ambitious television biographies of the candidates ever created.  To get the whole story, veteran producer Michael Kirk takes a fresh, contemporary look at the candidates’ lives and their political histories.  It’s a documentary which according to what I see is not allowed in United States at this moment – yet if you have the time it’s worthy to take a listen to it if you so deem it.

The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney intimately follows the odyssey of young Barry Obama from near-poverty in Indonesia to his marijuana-smoking “Choom Gang” days in Hawaii, then to college in California and New York, where he moved inexorably toward finding a home in Chicago’s black community.  Consumed by youthful angst, Obama’s own journals and letters reveal a confused young man on an identity quest.  By the end of his journey, Barry becomes Barack, and a political method is born. 

Mitt Romney grew up in an entirely different milieu, in a childhood defined by stability.  The son of a powerful automobile executive and moderate Republican governor, young Mitt lived a privileged life of private schools and carefully guarded ideas.  A Mormon, Romney spent more than two years as a missionary in France, fulfilling his obligation to the church while trying to complete the Sisyphean task of making abstinence from alcohol palatable in Bordeaux, of all places.  While Mitt didn’t make many converts on his mission, friends and family say that after almost dying in an automobile accident, he was reborn as a more serious man with a strong faith and a belief in his own life’s purpose.  Despite his success in business, Romney believed his destiny was in politics.  He would eventually sell himself and his evolving political identity to voters.  Lengthy interviews with family, close friends, colleagues, and political associates reveal a fuller picture of the real Mitt Romney

The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney also probes the divergent leadership styles of Obama and Romney, focusing on the signature achievement of both men: health care reform.  The documentary investigates their approaches to this boiling-button issue and what those approaches tell us about how they govern.  The film also explores how, while in office, both men were confronted with a reluctant legislature dominated by political opponents.  How they each handled that situation reveals much about their distinct political styles. Even on the ripest of Election Day mantras is sometimes true, literally every vote counts.  And maybe it will be true again on Tuesday when Americans vote for a president.

Indeed, America does have a peculiar system for electing a president.  The Electoral College tries to cap the influence of big states so that candidates can't ignore small states.  One of the consequences of that system is that a great number of votes can count for nothing.  For example, in 2008 John McCain won 2.5 million votes in the state of New York.  He got zero votes in the Electoral College.  He won 4.5 million votes in California, but again got none of California's votes in the Electoral College.  On the other hand, Barack Obama won 210,000 votes in Washington D.C. and picked up 3 votes in the Electoral College.  A little wonky, but that's the system.  I’m obviously no expert in the intricacies of Electoral College calculations.  But I've done my research for Tuesday night and it seems to me that where every vote is going to count is Ohio.  It's been close there before.  In 2004, John Kerry lost Ohio by two percentage points.  Had he won the state, he'd have won the presidency from George W. Bush.  In the last election it was close again.  Barack Obama won 51.2 per cent of the vote, but he won so many other states, the Ohio result wasn't crucial.  Things are much tighter this time, so it sure looks as if the winner in Ohio will give us our "Mr. President" moment in time.  What time can we expect that?

Well, within the United States, television networks project election results based as a preliminary calculation based on what voters say when they leave the polling station, which in turn can be influential on Election Day…  The United States electoral process there is extensive exit polling on Election Day.  They stand outside a cross-section of polling stations in every state, and ask people who have just cast a ballot, how they voted.  Then they run the results through sophisticated computer models and can often announce who won the state before a single vote is actually counted.  Sometimes the results of the exit poll make the race too close to call, so a network will then wait for real results and see how well they're matching the exit vote before they're confident enough to make their call.  It's a very rare occasion that everyone just waits for all the votes to be counted. 

You can be sure that on Tuesday there will be much more exit polling in Ohio than usual.  If there is no projection of a winner as soon as the polls close, you’ll know we're probably in for a long night.  Let’s hope that America at Large does pull out all stops and votes without being influenced – rather they make their own choice based on whom they believe in.  Not based on Projected Preliminary counts from State to State.

 

I was not paid to make this remark. It’s a post from one which was raised within the United States and looks from the “outside” and do look “within”.  Yet I do believe that within every democracy when people have the right to vote – they exercise that very given right!

Jack

Below is the Documentary

"The Choice 2012"

( The Documentary is Unbiased and Worthy )

 

 

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