I

n the third-world and underdeveloped countries, when elections throw up the wrong candidates, “vitamin M”, i.e. cash money in the form of bank notes, is (correctly) blamed.

This money is almost always laundered, unaccounted “black” money, which is disbursed by the candidates to poor voters through the chiefs of each shanty town that regularly sprout in every city and village.

As most of the people are poor and illiterate, it is easy to purchase their votes because quite often they don’t even know what they are selling and how cheaply!

But not the US! Though the presidential elections burn billions, I am sure that these dollars are not used to buy votes from poor voters. First, some Americans might be relatively poor, particularly after George W Bush (GWB) ended his terms (and financially finished his country).

However, no American suffers from abject poverty as the really poor citizens of the Third World, and so is unlikely to sell their vote for a few greenbacks.

Second, US voters are better educated and know that their votes are priceless.

Having said that, I have always wondered how Americans could elect GWB twice to the White House. Making a mistake once is understandable, but making the same mistake twice is beyond comprehension!

So, I was worried about American voters electing Mitt Romney in an unguarded moment. But, this time they did everything perfectly and reelected a level-headed, well-educated person as their president.

The financial disaster that GWB handed to Obama may take more than 20 years to turn around. Nobody, not even God, could fix it in four years. So Romney’s tirade against Obama for “not doing enough for the US economy and the spiraling national debt” was totally ill-placed.

I particularly liked Obama’s health care bill (derogatorily and unjustifiably called Obamacare) but, due to some quirk of mood, 2010 saw the House of Representatives fall under Republican leadership and also reduced the Democrats’ majority in the Senate.

Otherwise, Obama’s performance would have been dazzling. I feel that unless the House is brought back under Democrat control and 60+ democrats are elected to the Senate in 2014, the best that President Obama could offer won’t be seen by the world.

The cornerstone of Romney’s plan was to reduce taxes for the filthy rich. The argument was that by doing so, the rich would make investments to create jobs. But, nobody remembered Warren Buffet lamenting his being taxed at a far lower rate than his office staff and his call for less coddling of the “super-rich” and raising their tax rates.

Obama retained support from key elements of his base to win reelection. Though he lost some ground compared to 2008, he maintained wide advantages among young people, women, minorities and among both the less affluent and the well-educated.

I very much liked this sentence in Obama’s victory speech: “You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together.”

And I am sure that Romney’s statement — “I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. And so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation” — must have moistened many eyes.

I think Obama has his head screwed on and will lead his country (and the world) to the next stage of prosperity. I am sure that everybody, like me, wishes him good luck.

K B Kale
Jakarta