Obama versus Romney
S P SETH

The recent political conventions of the two US political parties, 
Democrats and the Republicans formally nominating their presidential 
contenders, were designed to directly appeal to the American people 
through the electronic media, which is now the nerve centre of 
political campaigning. Despite all the razzmatazz of the conventions, 
the contest remains tight. By choosing Paul Ryan as his 
vice-presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has sought to consolidate his 
party’s conservative base as he has lacked their trust with his 
flexible views in the past over issues such as abortion, health care 
and so on. In other words, he is now locked into Paul Ryan’s economic 
and political orthodoxy of unfettered capitalism, small government, and 
maximum role for individual enterprise. Which means that there should 
be tax cuts for the rich to encourage private investments, combined 
with spending cuts on social entitlement programs.
It is amazing that despite the global financial crisis brought on by 
capitalism gone berserk, the Republicans have managed to restore its 
“efficacy” considering that Romney has an even chance of becoming the 
new president. That in itself is a miracle of sorts that shows that the 
Wall Street, banks and the big business have not only washed off their 
sins, but are promising to do it all over again. And that the 
Republicans have convinced almost half of the country’s electorate that 
their narrative is still the right course for a still ailing United 
States.
The Democrats are, therefore, throwing everything into their campaign 
for Obama’s re-election. The enlisting of Bill Clinton’s help at the 
recent Democrats convention was a brilliant move for several reasons. 
First, it showed the Democrats as a united party, considering that 
Clinton had said some unsavoury things about Obama as a presidential 
candidate in 2008, when he was pitted against Hillary Clinton for 
Democratic presidential nomination. Second: Clinton is rated as the 
most popular American politician today. And his testimony of Obama’s 
political credentials should rub on the President. Third: he sought to 
demolish any slur on Obama’s American identity and patriotism by 
extolling his passion for the country. Fourth, Clinton extolled Obama’s 
desire and patience to reach out to his Republican opponents. But it 
hasn’t worked because “the far right that now controls their party 
seems to hate our President and a lot of other Democrats.”
On the other hand, Obama’s commitment to reach across the political 
divide for national good was evident when: “He appointed Republican 
secretaries of defence, the army and transport…. Heck, he even 
appointed Hillary” as secretary of state after she lost the Democratic 
nomination. Fifth: he put the best spin on Obama’s economic record by 
describing him as “a man who stopped the slide into depression and put 
us on the long road to recovery.” And it was vintage Clinton with his 
folksy political style. With the election so tight, Clinton’s charisma 
might eventually be the difference between victory and defeat for 
Obama, although it wasn’t so visible in opinion polls after the 
convention.
The country’s non-performing economy remains Obama’s big problem with 
nearly 25 million unemployed and under-employed. Among the voter 
demographics, Obama is not so popular with many white males. Many of 
them find the world slipping out of their comfort zone with new 
confused social values of gay marriage, legalized abortion, humane 
treatment of some of the young Latino immigrants, not to speak of an 
Afro-American as the country’s President.
And these people and their likes in the country’s Bible belt are the 
natural constituency of the even more than usually conservative 
Republican Party under the influence of the Tea Party movement. They 
have in Paul Ryan, a vice-presidential running mate to Mitt Romney, 
someone who not only shares their conservative social values but also 
is the new poster boy of the Republican party advocating public 
spending cuts, tax cuts for the rich, reduced government and even 
lesser regulation of private enterprise. In other words, Republicans 
want more of the same that has created the present economic mess. And 
they seem to have managed to confuse many people into believing that 
Barack Obama’s four years as President has somehow been at the root of 
all the country’s economic misery.
This narrative of Obama’s economic failure seems believable to many 
Americas because, having promised high heaven during the 2008 election 
campaign, the country seems to have hardly moved ahead for millions of 
Americans caught in the maelstrom of America’s worst economic crisis 
since the Great Depression of the thirties. The American election drama 
is the theatre of the absurd where real issues are ignored to dwell on 
shadows. For instance, both the parties are ignoring the plight of 
America’s about 46 million poor who hardly rate a mention.  For Obama, 
it is all about the middle class. And the Republicans focus on the rich 
who supposedly will pull the economy out of morass with their 
investments encouraged by low taxes and virtually no regulation.
And then there is the God factor, with the Republicans having a special 
relationship with Him. Mitt Romney pounced on the Democrats for 
initially leaving God out of their platform that has since been 
rectified. Which led Romney to pronounce that, “ I will not take God 
out of…our platform. I will not take God out of my heart. We are a 
nation that’s bestowed by God.” He knows the importance of keeping on 
the right side of God in the United States where people strongly 
believe that God blesses the United States. And the Republican Party is 
the conscience of the country. They are banking on mobilizing all these 
people imbued with special American values to keep out the supposed 
Obama mob of crazy youth, women who long for abortion, Latinos, 
Afro-Americans and gays.
A rainbow coalition of such diverse groups might still take Obama 
across the winning line. According to some polls he has a small, though 
not significant, lead over Romney.  His biggest problem, though, 
remains the economy. A close second is the virtual absence this time of 
committed young volunteers who put so much into his 2008 election 
campaign. And that kind of apathy will affect voters’ mobilization for 
Obama’s cause. At the same time, the Republican state governments have 
been making sure that many of the marginalized groups that usually vote 
Democrats are unable to cast their votes with new requirements of voter 
identification.
As if this weren’t enough, the fury in the Muslim world over a 
documentary made by some crazy guy in the United States that defames 
Prophet Muhammad is likely to be politicized in the US presidential 
election, with Romney already making some noises. How it will all play 
out will also have a bearing on the Obama-Romney contest. In other 
words, it is all up in the air.