...Why did Obama win the 2012 election? The 2012 US election saw Democrat Obama come up against Republican Romney. Obama was the favourite throughout and in the end won with 332 electoral votes, with Romney only gaining 206. There were several reasons as to why Obama won the election, such as the October surprise, a majority of Hispanic and Women votes for Democrat, and Romney as a man himself. However the main one can be considered Obama being an incumbent President, giving him a huge benefit in terms of the public. Obama being an incumbent President was a massive benefit for the election as this gave Obama a foot to stand on and was also able to attack Romney from the start. History has proven the benefit of being an incumbent President, for example Johnson in 1964, Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1984, Clinton in 1996 and Bush in 2004 were all re-elected as incumbents. The benefit of being incumbent is that you have already shown leadership in the past four years, and can be very popular with the public. Therefore Obama is able to state his achievements and show his leadership when campaigning, such as stating that unemployment was less than 8% for the first time in four years during the campaign, gaining him support, whereas Romney had not been proven and had no major achievements to support him. Therefore more ‘undecided voters’ listened more to Obama, meaning being an incumbent President gained him more popularity and support during the campaign. Being incumbent was also beneficial...
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...Jackson’s Views – The National Bank Andrew Jackson’s deep rooted antagonistic view of the National Bank began with the Election of 1824. During the year preceding the election, Jackson gained support from ordinary citizens who identified with his paltry beginnings. “In the election, no candidate claimed a majority either of the popular note or of the Electoral College” (Oakes, 2011). As a result, the election of the President was put in the hands of the House of Representative. Popular vote of the people had no play, and politics played a tremendous role in the outcome. In the end, “Adams received the votes of 13 of 24 state delegations” with Jackson receiving only 7 (Oakes, 2011). The final election of Adams into the Presidency was a result of a compact between Clay and Adams, as well as wealth elites. Despite the election of Adams, “this arrangement, however, hardly proved beneficial for either Adams or Clay. Denounced immediately as a ‘Corrupt Bargain’ by supporters of Jackson, the antagonistic presidential race of 1828 began practically before Adams even took office. To Jacksonians the Adams-Clay Alliance symbolized a corrupt system where elite insiders pursued their own interests without heeding the will of the people” (ushistory.org, 2012). In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected to the presidency. He “was elected by a cross section of voters who identified with his stance as an outsider to, and victim of, eastern elites” (Oakes, 2011). These eastern elites included...
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...Presidential Elections Andres B. Ronquillo HIST122A 15 July 2012 Our nation’s first presidential election took place in 1789, when Americans voted for electors and they voted for Washington, who ran and won without much opposition. However, it is 2012 and it has been over 200 years since that first election took place. Many things have changed since then, including the election process its self. I am not going to get into much detail about the process, Instead I will focus this paper on the changes we, as a nation, went through. I will focus more on the issues that have changed us the most, as a nation. Through the course of this class I have learned that some of the issues we have had in the past were based on race, gender, illiteracy and even poverty. I will touch on some of these issues but only briefly. Instead I will talk about present day presidential elections and how even though we have changed a lot of the major issues that affected the election process, there are still many issues that still affect us today. I will mainly focus on one of these issues. The Problems I will discuss will be focused around the military vote, mainly because I am in the Army and have friends/ family that are in the military. The problems with the absentee ballot system, are part of the issues I will discuss. It will be four years, in November, since President Obama was elected as our nation’s 44th President. Just like in 2008 and every other Presidential election year, we the people...
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...during the 1980s, the Royal Commission came up with ten criteria to assess the best system and suggested a change to the MMP system. The few most important criteria are the fairness between political parties, effectiveness of parties and Parliament and even the political integration (Elections New Zealand, 2012). These criteria are not met in a FPP system as it tends to create a single-majority party in the parliament. The fairness between parties is defined as the proportionality between the total party votes and number of seats, gained by any parties (Elections New Zealand, 2012). The effectiveness of parties has the definition that the parties should always play their roles to create a more efficient and democratic country and to provide a more effective representation for the society of New Zealand (Elections New Zealand, 2012). In addition, the best voting system always provides an improved parliamentary role such as passing policies, enacting legislation and provide better services which is defining the effectiveness of Parliament. The political integration, then, outlined the opinions and points of view of all groups and parties should all be respected and adopted (Elections New Zealand, 2012). By assessing all the criteria above, the best voting system must be the one system that best meets them. Although it is obvious that the MMP system is the best possible system as New Zealand had decided to adopt it, MMP could still be improved to be a better system. After many...
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...EVS Test Plan Document e - Voting System ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Test Plan Document< E-Voting System >Project Code: BSSE-08-KS-5056Internal Advisor: Ma’m Sadia MunawarExternal Advisor: Sir M. IlyasProject Manager: XyzProject Team: BSE-F08-50, BSE-F08-56Submission Date: 04th April’2012 * * _____________________ Project Manager’s Signature | Document Information Category | Information | Customer | Election Commission Pakistan | Project | E-voting System | Document | Test Plan | Document Version | 1.0 | Identifier | PGBH01-2003-TP | Status | Draft | Author(s) | BSE-F08-050,BSE-F08-56 | Approver(s) | PM | Issue Date | March 04, 2012 | Document Location | | Distribution | 1. Advisor 2. PM 3. Project Office | Definition of Terms, Acronyms and Abbreviations This section should provide the definitions of all terms, acronyms, and abbreviations required to interpret the terms used in the document properly. Term | Description | EVS | E- Voting System | TP | Test Plan | AOB | Any Other Business | PP | Political party | BB | Ballot box | CA | Constituency Area | | | | | * ------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents * * 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Purpose of Document 5 1.2...
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...IMPLICATIONS OF 2014 ELECTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA’S ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL FOREIGN POLICIES (in Africa) Presented by Mwayaona Safari[jacques.safari@gmail.com], 2014 Essay Draft (Assignment 1 final) TOPIC 2014 is election year in South Africa. This carries serious implications for the country's political and economic standing overseas. DELIMITATION In order to properly orient the development of this topic, we will define our remarks on South African foreign policy and the consequences on the African continent only. DEVELOPMENT The position of South Africa is central in African politics and economics. The change of politics in South Africa could imply many economical and political changes for both the whole continent and South Africa. These upcoming elections carry within them the seeds of change. South Africa has strong trade relations with many countries in Africa and recently, has developed many programmes on the continent. Energy (electricity and oil) There are many challenges in South Africa today. One of those biggest challenges is Energy. South Africa’s economy’s growing faster and by the end of 2030 it will require twice the electricity needed today as reported by SouthAfrica.info (2012). The successful example we can take to explain our point of view is the Democratic Republic of the Congo where mass Oil resources have been discovered and which has massive electricity potentiality. Recently, South Africa has signed an agreement on the Grand Inga barrage (SouthAfrica...
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...and rallied the emotional side of supporters. Most of the occasions, contesting candidates would have carefully selected controversial policies that the majority were against, to garner support by invoking them to think that dethroning the current office would be “changing for the better”. Social Media experts would then exaggerate these feelings of unrest and protest in the undecided voters by publishing contents that citizens feel that are controversial. The reigning party would also, with the help of traditional social media, attempt to strengthen their foothold in the office by reinforcing the pathetic few policies that they have implemented during their term. Traditional social media has indeed played a pivotal role in all political elections all around the globe. However, with the ubiquity of smartphones and personal computers, coupled with a massive surge of online social platforms, the pivotal change of politics seem to lie in the hands of the party who knows how to play the game of IT. There have been numerous cases of cunning New Media ploys which parties have attempted in order to swing votes in their favour. In this critical, yet informative and engaging report, we aim to unveil the evil doings behind the subtle use of IT and new media platforms to propagate the masses of the 21st century citizens, thereby showing that IT has indeed and will increasingly affect the outcome of political...
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...social media has become the new movement for presidential elections just as radio and television revolutionized the process in previous elections. The 2008 US election was no exception to the movement, going down in history as the social media election. The Obama campaign was a revolution dedicated to the utilization of social media to connect directly to the American public; their means of communication trigged a change that forever transformed the face of political campaigning. With the ability to communicate with supporters, they fully understood the potency of using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Through social media, they were able to mobilize and encourage supporters’ contribution in the campaign trial, with sites such as meetup.com. Social media also played a part in their fundraising, strategically using social networking sites, the main campaign website MyBarackObama.com, e-mails, text messages, etc. to receive donations. Last but not least, they were able to fully take advantage of the traffic flow to sites such as YouTube and Google to advertise their campaign. Facebook, known as one of the most dominate social networking sites of today’s society with nearly 600 million users. According to ‘Me Media’ by Cassidy(2006,pp.50–59) In 2006 “ Facebook was used at over 2,000 United States colleges and was the seventh most popular site on the World Wide Web with respect to total page views”. It was no coincidence that one Obama’s leading strategist...
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...distribute the file, please email the Subscriptions Department at subs@businessmonitor.com, providing details of your subscription and the number of recipients you wish to forward or distribute this information to. DISCLAIMER All information contained in this publication has been researched and compiled from sources believed to be accurate and reliable at the time of publishing. However, in view of the natural scope for human and/or mechanical error, either at source or during production, Business Monitor International accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage resulting from errors, inaccuracies or omissions affecting any part of the publication. All information is provided without warranty, and Business Monitor International makes no representation of warranty of any kind as to the accuracy or completeness of any information hereto contained. ISSN 1474-5615 Vol 29 Issue 3 March 2012 Andean Business Monitor International’s monthly regional report on political risk and macroeconomic prospects THIS MONTH’S TOP STORIES VENEZUELA Living On The Edge BMI View: This year will be of pivotal importance for Argentina and Venezuela, with potential knock-on effects for the entire region. Both countries are on a highly unsustainable macroeconomic trajectory, which could lead to an economic and political implosion....
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...England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Public Money & Management Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpmm20 How the UK government responded to the fiscal crisis: an outsider's view Walter Kickert Published online: 23 Mar 2012. To cite this article: Walter Kickert (2012) How the UK government responded to the fiscal crisis: an outsider's view, Public Money & Management, 32:3, 169-176, DOI: 10.1080/09540962.2012.676273 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2012.676273 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising...
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...Samantha Caulder Assignment 6 The Year of the Shark and Other Fairy Tales the News Groups Told Me It is impossible to tell what would really be the greatest story to be followed by news groups in any year where there is little of earth shattering news; the indications are that many of the old standbys would dominate the news. It seemed that terror seemed to dominate the news before and after 9/11. During the news cycles during the year 2001, the same recurring themes seemed to dominate, just as they did in the decade before, with less hand wringing and feigned outrage over the antics of a Democratic administration that was in power before 2001. The bombings in Israel by Palestinian suicide bombers and the export of terror by the Taliban and the continued death of dictators with an ax to grind with the United States, such as Kim Jung Il of North Korea, Muoammar Kadhafi in Libya, Sadaam Hussein in Iraq and Mamoud Achmedinijhad in Iran and the world at large would have still been the top stories of the news groups (The Arizona Republic, 2009). The domestic terrorism would have been more palpable, such as the mailing of anthrax that was sent in five letters and the execution of Timothy McVeigh. There should have less been made over the President lying about having sex with an intern, the more immediate concern of having the ability to take Osama Bin Laden out of commission and letting him escape would have been a more creditable idea, though it provided less human interest...
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...Ramona Elder Mr. Neal American Government How does the tea party affect the voting rights of people? The Tea Party is a grassroots movement that calls awareness to any issue that challenges the security, sovereignty, or domestic tranquility of our beloved nation, the United States of America. From our founding, The Tea Party represents the voice of the true owners of the United States: WE THE PEOPLE. Many are credited to be founders of this movement; however, it was the brave souls of the men and women in 1773, known today as the Boston Tea Party, who dared to defy the greatest military might on earth. We are the beneficiaries of their courage. The Tea Party includes those who possess a strong belief in the foundational Judeo-Christian values embedded in our great founding documents. We believe that the responsibility of our beloved nation is entrenched within the hearts of true American Patriots from every race, religion, national origin, and walk of life who share a common belief in the values which made and keep our beloved nation great. We stand by the Constitution as inherently conservative. We serve as a beacon to the masses that have lost their way, a light illuminating the path to the original intentions of our Founding Fathers. We must raise a choir of voices declaring that America must stand on the values that made us great. Only then will the politically blind see and deaf hear! By joining the Tea Party, you are taking a stand for our nation. You will be upholding...
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...Nigeria Geographical, Political, and Economic Overview Lyla Snider HUMN 305 - U4WW (WI12) Professor Brian Kasvosve March 11, 2012 Geography and Background The Federal Republic of Nigeria, commonly referred to in short as “Nigeria” is located in Western Africa. It is bordered by Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin. It is also a coast line to the Gulf of Guinea located in the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria gets its name from the Niger River which flows through the western side of the country and proves as a valuable resource. Nigeria is considered to be Africa’s most populous countries and also one of the most diverse, consisting of approximately 250 ethnic groups. The countries religious views are shared mainly between Muslim and Christian beliefs. The official language of Nigeria is English, however, many different dialects spoken including Hausa, Yoruba, and Fulani (Rosenburg, 2005). Now that you have an understanding some of the demographics of Nigeria, let’s explore a little history. In the late 1800’s Nigeria and British were heavily involved with trade. By 1914, Nigeria was officially united. The growth of education and economic development grew vastly. The drive towards “nationalism” and demands for independence moved Nigeria toward self-government and by 1922 the British introduced direct election into the legislative council By1959, the North had gained self-governing status. These political restructuring, ultimately led to Nigeria gaining full independence on October 1...
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...Module: Public Law& Civil Rights ‘The Government is pledged in its manifesto to complete reform of the Lords to remove the hereditary element entirely and to reconstitute the House on a modern representative basis.’ Government White Paper (The House of Lords: Completing the Reform 2001). Consider the political and legal reasons as to why, some 13 years after stage 1 of House of Lords reform (the House of Lords Act 1999), Parliament has only now started to consider Stage 2 legislation (House of Lords Reform Bill 2012). Abstract During the past 100 years, the British government has never ceased trying to bring democracy to the House of Lords. However, having examined the reform history, one could conclude that all the reforms proposed after 1999 are not carried out as planned. This essay, therefore, attempts to provide descriptions on the major reforms of Lords proposed or implemented since 1911. It will focus particularly on discussing the main political and legal difficulties on the incompletion of reform of Lords since 1999. 1. Introduction The House of Lords has long been known as a historical curiosity of this country. Together with the Canadian Senate, the chamber remains one of the only two unelected second chambers in the modern and major democracies. Owing to the undemocratic composition of the Lords, it was reluctant to utilize its legitimate powers in the 20th century for which some local political scholars described as having ‘a little public profile...
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...grassroots political involvement, infringed on First Amendment rights, and helped to entrench incumbents in office while doing nothing to address the allegedly corrupting influence of money in politics. The 1974 amendments to the federal election campaign act constituted the first effort to establish a comprehensive, national system of campaign finance regulation. Specifically, the amendments established these limits for federal campaign finance, individual contributions were limited to $1,000 per candidate per election, with primary and general elections counting as separate elections, individuals were limited to $25,000 per calendar year in total contributions to candidates, party committees, and political action committees, PAC’s and party committees were limited to contributing $5,000 per candidate per election. In addition, the 1974 amendments established the presidential financing system of matching funds to candidates for amounts raised in contributions of $250 or less, established overall spending limits for eligibility to receive matching funds, and provided for public funding of major party candidates in the general election for president. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 brought about a modern take on the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. Buckley vs Valeo, is a famous case around campaign finance as a coalition of liberals and conservatives attacked FECA as...
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