Tuesday night, at approximately 10.36pm Central Time, saw 9 months of campaigning, television commercials, blogging, news articles, bias reports, lies, binders of women, poor old Big Bird's welfare being threatened, both parties making ridiculous mistakes, and an enormous amount of yard signs all come to a head with the 2012 Presidential Election (finally) taking place. And to, in my opinion, a marvellous result; the re-election of President Barack Obama. It's been such a good experience to be here during a big political overhaul, especially with being in a Republican state which I haven't been in before.
I've learnt just how Democrat-biased the European news is and as a result, I was astonished by the charisma and competence of Mitt Romney. I have seen how the economy is affecting people over here first hand, and it's a concept that I wasn't fully aware of until I came here. After just two weeks of debating and talking politics over with different people (a total mix thereof), I was very much on the political fence. While Obama's social policies ticked all the boxes, he had failed to deliver on a few of his 4 year trademark promises. However, when weighing up both candidates (despite not being able to vote, I really tried to do my research so that my opinion was informed rather than blind - nothing annoys me more people with opinions on the American election who have little/no idea what they are talking about...) I decided that Obama was the lesser of two evils which led to some brilliant discussions over the dinner table here in Houston.
Today I got a chance to look at the official breakdown of the votes in each US County (our county is Harris) and turns out our county voted in Obama but scarily, he only received two votes more than Romney. Two! Admittedly, it won't have made the biggest difference in the world to the overall result but hey, as Tesco says, every little helps.
I feel that by being in the USA at this time I really started to understand their political climate more. Everyone was getting involved in the election; even the 4 boys each had an opinion on who should win! Regardless of how you feel about the outcome America, Obama received both the electoral and popular vote so clearly some of you (at least) wanted him to have another 4 years. I guess we'll see now how the next 4 years pan out - fingers crossed they can improve this economic slump!
Either way, thank you for a brilliant Tuesday night Romney* and Obama** - I had a great time during my first US election. I put together my favourite political photos below, I've been collecting them since I first arrived! The change in political climate from Maryland to Texas was brilliant too and I woke up to an email entitled, 'FOUR MORE YEARS!!!' from Baltimore on Wednesday and I couldn't help but smile in the knowledge that my preferred candidate made it! Furthermore, smaller issues were being voted for on Tuesday which has now led to Washington, Maine and Maryland legalising gay marriage! Welcome to the 21st century (but better late than never, eh).
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| Election themed trick-or-treating last Wednesday was the absolute best. |
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| Political cookies purchased from Three Brother's Bakery! At $5 a time they weren't cheap but I couldn't resist a gingerbread flavoured chunk of Obama's face. Can we bake politician's faces onto almost anything? Yes we can. |
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| (I don't approve of Romney's social policies, as depicted above) |
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| The Election also meant a free Jobs-For-America bracelet from Starbucks that would normally have cost $5, cheers politics. |
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| Seen in Houston. |
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| Debates! |
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| Election themed art in CAMH ('Your Land, My Land') |
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| Battle of the yard signs. |
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| Seen in Montrose, Houston |
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| Seen in Maryland! Oh the difference. |
* AKA, Mittens.
**AKA, Bronkobama rather than Barack Obama (as the youngest boy calls him).
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