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americas pm

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:48 pm
by Dragonette
Who thinks who is going to win and why

Can anyone explain to me why current pressidents cant stay in power.

Who would/ are you voting for and why.

Do you think the rest of the world needs to know?

I think that ohbama is going to win, the press and other important american charecters are putting him under the shining sun but leaving clinton out.

I would vote for ohbama as his campaign is much more convincing and their are a lot less loopholes.

I am getting board of hearing about super tuesday, i dont live their and don't know anyone their, so why do i need to know??

d

Re: americas pm

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:22 pm
by Xarfei
To answear a few of your questions:

1) The current president cannot stay in office because he has already served two consecutive terms, which is the maxium that is allowed by the constitution (since the 22nd amendment in 1951).

(I obviously looked up that last part (wikipedia))

2) I don't think that the candidates should be kept secret from the rest of the world. :wink:

3) I would probably vote for Hillary, but since I cannot, I haven't really looked into it.

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:12 am
by Nemesis
Since America is the World's superpower it will be on our news. I don't have a clue who I would vote for, I have managed to miss most of the coverage.

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:28 pm
by Hryllantre
america who?

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:57 pm
by TBert
Yay! A civics lesson from one of the small minority of Americans that both understands and cares about the American election process. Yes, that's me. I do apologize if I insert a little of my own opinion in here, but it's too strong to repress. I know you guys don't live in America, but when the leader of the free world changes (especially a leader as universally disliked a George Bush), you oughta know, but you probably aren't even getting a smidgen of the coverage we're getting here. There was a lot more coverage here in America about Tony Blair than you'd expect.

America has two main parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Each party runs it's own election to pick it's Presidential candidate. This part of the election started in early 2007, and is still going on. Each state runs an election for each party where the voters pick who they want to represent their party. The candidates spend their time first campaigning in the early states, then expand their campaign nationwide once more states start to vote. The first states voted in January, but the reason Super Tuesday is so huge is because 22 states, almost half the country, have their elections on that day. These party-specific elections continue until one candidate per party has won enough support to have a majority, and that candidate is formally crowned at the end of this part of the election, at each party's convention. Once that finishes, those two run against each other in a general election for President, where all the states vote on the same day.

This particular presidential campaign has been very exciting for those in America that follow it. One party, the Democrats (liberal) are down to two major candidates, both of which would be historic. Those are Barack Obama (a black man) and Hillary Clinton (remember that guy named Bill Clinton?). Even after the Super Tuesday elections, with over half of the country having voted, neither Dem candidate has a clear lead over the other. They share many of the same positions. I've personally picked Barack Obama for very simple reasons. I've always been a Democrat, and Hillary Clinton is universally hated by the Republicans, and would be even more divisive than George Bush was. That's not what this country needs right now. And, Barack Obama is an incredible orator, the likes of which I've never seen. Ideally that kind of charisma will bring a sense of unity back to this country, which it hasn't had since JFK. This is the speech he made after Super Tuesday, where he broke even with Hillary Clinton. http://link.brightcove.com/services/lin ... 1407950326

On the other side, the Republicans (Conservatives) are also down to two candidates. One of them is John McCain, a Vietnam war vet, but a guy that has a history of actually trying to work with the Democrats to get things done. Because of this, he's being labeled as a liberal Republican, not a true conservative, etc. I honestly wouldn't mind if McCain gets elected, especially if he makes crotchety religious conservative types nervous. The other guy is Mike Huckabee, a baptist minister who is far behind but trying to make a comeback, riding the support of all the conservatives that are freaking out about John McCain. But, Mike is far behind, and McCain will almost definitely get the Republican nomination.

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:08 pm
by Tinker
I'm a Canadian, and we tend to pay awful close attention to what happens South of our border politically, given that the States are our closest ally and trading partner. Not to mention the fact that our forces are fighting beside theirs in Afghanistan.

Personally, I'd be pretty happy with either Obama or Clinton; I think they both bring a lot to the table. And as Tbert says, if there's going to be another Republican in the Oval Office I think we could all do much, much worse than McCain. So, from my point-of-view, the Primaries are going very well thus far.

The only thing I have against Obama is that he has some protectionist leanings and has made some noise about cancelling NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). From a Canadian standpoint, anything that closes down our biggest market is a bad thing!

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:09 pm
by korexus
TBert wrote:I know you guys don't live in America, but when the leader of the free world changes (especially a leader as universally disliked a George Bush), you oughta know, but you probably aren't even getting a smidgen of the coverage we're getting here.
The problem isn't so much the quantity of coverage (although we are certainly getting a lot) so much as the content.

Every time I see or hear a news story about the candidates, it starts with an introduction, fairly similar to the one TBert gave. Only problem is that once you've done a resume for four people, you've pretty much run out of time and so we never get any details.

I know a little bit about each of the candidates and what the general principles that they stand for. But I have no clue how the election of one will affect my life differently to the election of another (even though different policies in America will surely result in different siuations in Britain). As such, I find it hard to remain interested in talk about an election which, after all, won't happen for three quarters of a year.

When it gets closer to the election, I'll read about the two remaining candidates and make my mind up about who I'd prefer. Even that is pretty pointless as I don't get a vote, but it helps to have something to talk about. For now, I can cope with the news being full of the elections, but I wish the topical satire programmes would leave them alone a bit. Particularly with all the scandals we have going on over here right now...

Oh and I'll ignore the bit about 'leader of the free world' in the interest of keeping the thread on topic... :P


korexus.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:02 pm
by Bloodaxe
To be honest, most of the people I know are far more interested in the US elections that they are about our elections. We seem to give loads of coverage to the little details about the US elections, and we dedicate large sections of all of the news programs and internet pages to the US elections, and sometimes just ignore other news stories...