Obama vs. Romney

The presidential campaign in the United States has reached its final days. The elections are to be held on Tuesday, November 6. The question of 2012’s presidential election is a historical one: will the US’s first Afro-American president remain in the White House for a second term?

The US suffers today one of the worst recessions of its history. President Barack Obama has faced a struggling economy since he has taken office. Many of his critics blame him and say that his policies are not suitable to handle the current situation. 

However, there is a significant advantage on Obama’s side: his personal charm. Is his charm enough to convince his former voters to come back to the polls again and those citizens who are hesitating but still undecided for Mitt Romney? How many Americans will overcome the reprimands for Obama’s being responsible for the ongoing economic malaise?

Since his inauguration, president Obama passed a healthcare reform, established new rules for the Wall Street and the banking industry and launched an economic stimulus programme. Regarding his foreign policy, the president has increased the forces in Afghanistan with the promise of removing US troops from the country by the end of 2014, his team of commandos killed Osama Bin Laden and brought the US war in Iraq to a close.

His challenger is the Republican Party’s nominee Mitt Romney, a former one-term governor of Massachusetts. Romney has an important business and a much discussed religious background. His political career was promoted when he was in function of President of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee of the Winter Olympic Games in 2002. In the same year he was elected Governor of Massachusetts. He did not run for re-election four years later but he started to prepare for the Republican nomination which he eventually won in 2012.

The still ongoing debate shows numerous oppositions between the incumbent president and his challenger. Besides the urgent economic problems, among the most debated issues of the presidential debate was Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform law. The Medicaid’s purpose is to offer a universal health insurance coverage which demands the citizens to purchase insurance. It also offers states grants for poor people to be able to enroll in the public insurance programme. Romney, a determined Republican who aims for the image of the self-reliant American citizen, attacked the healthcare reform and promised to return to the former health policy of the states. He did it even though that Obama’s Medicaid shows a lot of similarity to the programme Romney signed into law in 2006 in Massachusetts.

The undecided states of rights of abortion and homosexual marriages seem to be everlasting stories for the US. Whereas Obama supports abortion rights and appointed two Supreme Court justices who are inclined to recognize abortion rights, Romney is in favour of pro-life policy.

The chances and possibilities are being discussed. Yeah, but...

...what leads the ordinary people to make the final diecision?