Thoughts of an optimist

Needless to say, I am so happy that President Obama got reelected last week with an impressive majority in the Electoral College.  I was quite nervous about the so called ‘dumb’ American electorate making a bad choice, like they did reelecting George W. Bush in 2004 (they did not elect Bush in 2000, despite what the Supreme Court says!). I had clearly underestimated the ability of the people to see through the deceptions and lies of Romney and team. Still, it is astonishing that people in ‘red states’ like Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, who could very much use government help, voted for Mitt Romney’s smaller government. May be Obama’s race has something to do with it.  

 I am very much looking forward to the next four years under President Obama. I hope he will be more firm and confident this time in his dealings with the Republicans (they have run circles around him so far, outsmarting him in all negotiations!). He does not have to worry about reelection, and have, at least for now, support from the majority of the electorate to implement what he campaigned for. I think his supporters have to be more involved forcing him to do things this time.

Notes of a pessimist!

Today is Election Day, and I am on pins and needles. I have a nagging fear that Romney will pull it off despite of all the polls and statistics predicting an Obama victory. If that happens, I fear that this country will become unbearable to live. Over time, I expect the country to be completely broken up with an angry middle class and poor rebelling against the rich. President Obama and his campaign strategists should take most of the blame for this horrific turn of events. Instead of boldly projecting their achievements over the past four years and offering a coherent plan for the feature, they adopted an extremely negative campaign trying to paint Romney as an out-of-touch rich guy. This strategy, which cost hundreds of millions in T.V. advertisements to execute, completely collapsed at the first Presidential debate where Romney came across as a reasonable and knowledgeable candidate. Instead of presenting a clear vision of what he plans to achieve in the next four years, Obama played safe with some lofty statements about saving the middle class, and giving everyone an equal ‘shot’. Romney was one of the worst Republican Presidential candidates ever.  But he managed to hold on despite numerous gaffes and political blunders as people were willing to overlook them in their eagerness to find an alternative to Obama. Although history may say that Obama failed to get reelected because he was black, the truth is that people gave him everything on a platter in 2008 (80% popularity, absolute majority in Congress), and he fumbled it.  What a shame!