To me, the U.S. Presidential Race is one of the most interesting, enthralling and sometimes plain scary events in global politics. Take for example, recently-departed Texas governor, Rick Perry's 'Strong' advertisement, which is 31 seconds of pure uncomfortableness. To think this man was ever hoping to be President sickens me. It is 2012 and you want to still want to make an argument that there is something wrong when 'gays can serve in the military?' Like I said before, scary. Swiftly moving on, the process of electing the most important public figure in the world is a long one and is commonly misunderstood.
The race is contested between the two major parties in America, the Democrats and the Republicans. Barack Obama (Democrat) is currently President and the Republicans must decide who will contest Obama in the general election of November 2012. However, before Obama, the Republicans fight amongst themselves to win their party's nomination to face Obama in a stage called the primaries.
The primaries are votes carried out over a period of time across all 50 states. The only exception to this is caucuses, which are not a ballot, rather a meeting where voters gather together and discuss who they think should win the nomination. In both the primaries and caucuses, the votes are tallied up and shared amongst the candidates, according to the percentage they received. What they win is a delegate, a person who will represent the candidate at the next stage of the race. The number of total delegates are proportional to the size of the state. Still with me? Well, simply put, the primaries and caucuses decide who will be the candidate to face the President.
In this current process, there are only four Republicans still in the race: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Originally, there were eight candidates. But the purpose of the primaries is to eliminate weak or even scandalous individuals. Herman Cain is one such candidate, who amongst other issues, was accused of having a 13-year affair. That is a strength of the primaries. Without them, would-be Presidents would not be scrutinised or challenged by the media as intensely as they are during primary season.
After the primaries finish on June 26th in Utah, the next stage of the race begins: the conventions begin. The conventions are very media-friendly events, with television cameras rolling nonstop as party figures make speeches to promote the upcoming general election. It is also the place where the party officially announce their chosen candidate. The delegates from primary season gather and call out who they back, and who won their vote, and although the delegate is not technically made to follow who won their vote, the answer is typically known. The delegates are totalled and the candidate with the most wins. Cue, confetti, fireworks, generic mainstream rock song as they walk onto the stage, fist-pumping the air and giving a rousing speech to kickstart the final portion of the race: the general election.
Back to 2012, the current favourite is Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts. Romney's popularity amongst Republicans surprises me. In 2006, he introduced universal-healthcare to his home-state, and bearing in mind the popularity of national health-care reform, 'Obamacare', among Republican voters, Romney could alienate his voterbase when it comes to tackling Obama.
Come Tuesday 6th November 2012, the 57th presidential election will take place. The belief is that voters will have a choice of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. By that time, the process will have lasted 21 months and cost billions of dollars (the 2008 campaign was the most costly in history totalling $5.3 billion.) Is that too much money? Is it too long of a process? That decision is up to you, but remember this is the selection of the President of the United States. As long as the right man ends up in the White House, the time and effort will all be worth it. After all, we definitely do not want Rick Perry.
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