By the time this editorial is published on Wednesday morning, the people of America—the world’s oldest democracy—would have completed voting for the 45th President of the United States. In fact the votes are already sealed and the American people would have already elected their next President although no one can tell who the winner will be—either incumbent President Barack Obama of the Democrat party or the Republican candidate Mitt Romney. There is now a consensus that this is one of the closest Presidential races in recent memory and it is extremely difficult to take a call on the winner. And therefore it was not surprising for the two candidates to be focusing their last minute efforts on what has come to be known as the ‘swing states’ that may well be the deciders in this knife-edge contest. Coming to the political process of electing the next President, whatever the bitterness in the weeks and months of intense campaign by both sides, the silver lining is that no matter who wins the race for the White House one can rejoice in the fact that it is the free will of the people who will decide the winner. The freedom to choose without fear or favour, to cast your ballot as a democratic fundamental right, these are perhaps the ideals that make America great and respectable in the eyes of the world. Democracy should not be only about great numbers or big crowds. It ought to entail dialogue, persuasion, equal opportunities, respect for life-law and to ensure fair play. Whatever the political rivalry between Mr Obama and Mr Romney, at least one thing remains unchanged—the quality of democracy that will in a civilized manner give back to the people a President that has been elected in a free and fair manner.
Coming to the contest between President Obama and his challenger Mr Romney, if we look at what has been happening right through the campaign period, we have come to know that both the candidates have two completely different visions for America, although when it comes to foreign policy there is bound to be some common ground. Otherwise as rightly mentioned in the media, not only their political ideology but also it would seem that Obama and Romney come from different corners of America. President Obama as would be expected of a democrat is a true liberal while Mr Romney is a true blooded conservative. The former’s core constituency would be the middle class while the latter’s would be the traditional wealthy Americans. President Obama has most of Hollywood on his side while Mr Romney would appeal to the religious right. Women and large section of young people, African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans will support Mr Obama while Mr Romney will pull in the rest especially white men to his side. On the face of it one would assume that Mr Obama may have the edge because of the more broad based support. And like it or not it is not about the old America anymore. It is almost like a rainbow nation where people of all race, religion, ethnicity, gender etc will decide who will be the next President. While the race is indeed very close, perhaps another advantage for President Obama will be that the American public may feel that his big ticket theme during the 2008 election of “Change Yes We Can” will need more than just four years. They may just give him another term to do justice to this calling.
