Barack Obama's election victory appears to have been quite decisive, at least in terms of winning the electoral college votes of states necessary to be appointed as president of the United States and to gaining majority positions in the Senate and House of Representatives. a report on BBC radio this lunch time indicates that he won 52% of the popular vote. This is decisive in the sense that it represents an absolute majority of the votes cast, and electoral systems can quite often produce a victor with a much lower proportion of the total votes cast - the UK being a good example of this. But it still leaves 48% of the vote going elsewhere - and this is something that the Obama administration will need to bear in mind if it is to live up to the language of unifying the nation that has been used today.
Diakonia's reaction to the election is here. These are Young Fogey's observations.
1 comment:
Yes, but i expect Bush said about unity and aren't the jury still out as to whether he won the first election at all? Also, don't all parties say they are the party for everyone- no matter what country it is?
I was told years ago by a friend who wasn't going to vote "they're all the same anyway" and as the years go by i have sort of come to the same conclusion!
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