Obama again – it must have been the power of incumbency (or suddenly, change is bad)
I wasn’t at all surprised, though, because throughout my lifetime US presidents have all but two won the second term they are permitted at law.
Read my column about the subject tomorrow in The Malta Independent, which is now live on line.
The only surprise I’m dealing with here is that it’s four years already since I kept the television on while working so that I could follow every minute of the election of the first black American president, who wasn’t even the descendant of a slave.
It was all so exciting, and seemed momentous.
And I remember thinking (and probably writing) how it said a lot that the USA got its first black (man) president before its first (white) woman president.
And that’s America. On this score, Europe at least has done a lot better.
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If Mitt Rooney had promised the American people a reduction in water and electricity bills, he would have had a bigger chance.
Romney.
Rooney is a footballer, not a Mormon, former presidential candidate.
You are right.
Sad day… i was so relishing the chance of a first Mormon president.
War with Iran will be avoided, at least for now.
Not so sure about that. However, with Obama’s re-election the chance of a unilateral strike by the US is diminished.
Obama is President of the US, not Israel.
Any attack on Iran can only be ‘politically justified’ if it is launched by Israel, whose existence is under threat.
oops… that should be ‘politically justified’
Ciccio, if that were so, the only nation politically justified in attacking Germany in the aftermath of the invasion of September 1939, was Poland itself.
This was essentially a vote for “bread and circuses”.
The US electorate has chosen to go down the path trodden by many European nations in that it now prefers to elect a “nanny state” government which promises to care for them from cradle to grave. So much for self reliance and a “can do” attitude.
Only problem is, there isn’t enough money on earth to bail out the US when it finally hits rock bottom.
A sad day for all those who cherish hard work, self-reliance and the aspiration to citizenship rather than serfdom (with apologies to Hayek).
Obama cherishes hard work, self-reliance and aspired to the highest position of citizenship rather than serfdom.
Ironic, isn’t it?
Hear hear.
Somewhat shallow thinking, Cliveb. Have you ever visited or worked with Americans? ‘Serfs’ they are not. Nor will they be.
It’s ironic that your description of ‘hard work, self-reliance and aspiration’ is exactly what has, and will keep them as the number one economic powerhouse. (Sargas aside).
Maybe Americans are finally realising that universal healthcare is a good thing since most opposed it when I lived there.
I am not sure how avidly other readers of your blog have followed the run-up to the elections.
If they have all seen the Facebook pages, the Tweets, the adverts, the rallies and so on for the last month.
Both candidates have flown the length and breadth of the States, engaged a multitude of helpers, volunteers and staff.
Both seem to have spent millions upon millions on their campaigns. In one state alone Obama was said to have spent $80 million on TV advertising.
Yet, much to my dismay, and the astonishment I am sure of other armchair advisers, at no point in this hard-fought race has either candidate shown their secondary school religion results.
Surely Romney must now be kicking himself for this omission.
Be specific. Romney may have mislaid his form II report.
‘And that’s America. On this score, Europe at least has done a lot better.’
Asia got there first: Mrs Bandaranaike and Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir were Prime Ministers before Thatcher.
Still I believe the US is the first democratic country to elect a member of an ethnic minority as its head of government (unless you count Disraeli), which is still a historic event.
[Daphne – I do count Disraeli, and you should too. A Jewish man for prime minister at a time of widespread anti-Semitic sentiment is quite a statement. Britain has a long and proud history of immigrants in general, and the descendants of recent Jewish immigrants in particular, becoming successful politicians. Barack Obama does not come from an ethnic minority. Don’t make that mistake. He was raised by a bourgeois white family and belongs to the mainstream. The fact that he was fathered by a Kenyan man who played no part in his upbringing does not make him ‘black’ except in skin tone. It is significant that the first black US president is not the descendant of a slave and effectively ‘white’.]
There are plenty of “ethnic minorities” in European democracies, and many members of ethnic minorities have been elected to lead the government. It’s just that we Europeans don’t make a song and dance about it.
Sarkozy for one.
Or Léon Gambetta.
And there was Fujimori in Peru. But none of these carry the same historic significance as an African-American becoming President of the US.
Afro-Americans most certainly count him as one of their own, you only have to listen to their own brand of racism to realise that.
‘…He was raised by a bourgeois white family…’
Except for the years he spent with his Muslim stepfather in Indonesia.
In any case, this is irrelevant. When one stands for office, what counts is not what one is, but what one is perceived to be.
Obama is of mixed race descent. For those people who care about this, he will always be ‘not one of us’.
Well even W Bush was given a second term.
[Daphne – Who is W Bush?]
Have you done an analysis of the Gonzi – Muscat debate as yet? Or still working to see the benefits to the Maltese economy on the shifting of the HQ of the Brazilian Co. to Malta. Tell Dr Gonzi, for his own sake to call it a day.
[Daphne – I don’t tell ‘Gonzi’ anything. I’m a newspaper columnist, not the prime minister’s personal adviser, despite what the Labour Party would have you believe. And no, I haven’t watched the debate, which is a shame, because apparently Muscat was weak.]
Has Franco criticised Obama yet?
Of course not. Does Franco know there is a world outside Malta? Does Obama threaten Franco in any way?
Something’s not right with Labour’s take on Odebrecht.
Whereas Sansone tries to downplay the potential of the multinational and its offices in Mriehel, Maltatoday tries to demonise the company.
Leo Brincat looks intent on pushing the agenda that business in Libya should perhaps retain traditional channels.
As usual, Labour differentiates who’s to do business in Malta given that Brincat’s allegations hardly dovetail with Joseph’s whistleblowing concept. Angolan politicians for heaven’s sake.
They should at least decide whether the PM should or shouldn’t have acknowledged the presence of this giant conglomerate, at least now that Gaddafi’s dead.
If I were Odebrecht, I’d keep an eye on Leo’s motives, maybe demand an urgent clarification from Joseph.
What is clear is that Joseph may have opened one can of worms here. Surely Chinese investment in North Africa doesn’t preclude Labour from others.
Now that Konrad Mizzi just gave the game away with ‘energy trading’ to obtain better fuel prices, which happens to be China’s inverse strategy regarding its emissions. Get a piece of African soil, buy its deficit in emissions to confiscate its wells. Pure speculation amounting to colonisation of territories and enslavement of their inhabitants.
Not to mention risking public money with derivatives instead of hedging prices.
Maybe Joseph will explain in due time whether his energy trading concept has built in mechanisms to counteract recent incidents related to the mechanism, namely the California energy crisis in 2001, and more recently Enron’s debacle.
Given that both suffered the same flaw, an inability to provide a hedging mechanism to counteract these, a condition when a sole operator manages the grid, the node being Malta itself, the risk we face is artificial reduction in supply to offset risks onto the consumer directly.
Or does Konrad Mizzi believe he can dupe ENI into allowing its grid to be used to squeeze operators in Italy out? One of the things he laid emphasis on was Italy’s prices.
Piedmont was milked dry when the region undertook a similar contract to speculate its energy price, conditions hidden away in the algorithm contracted should any subsequent elected government decide against.
Labour had better come clear. Who is Konrad Mizzi?
Good question. Who is Konrad Mizzi?
A consultant. He consults.
Konrad the konsultant?
Isn’t Labour all-out against consultants? “Il-Labour mhux safe ghal-konsultantz.”
Had Bill Clinton not been involved in Monicagate, HiIlary would have been the first female president of the U.S.
In 2008 many Democrats avoided voting for Hillary in the primaries because they believed that if she were to be the nominee the whole Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater and other scandals would have been rehashed in the media tuning out her message and turning off independent voters.
Obama proved to be the right choice. His message of change was not tainted by any scandals in his past and he galivinized sectors of the population that never participated in elections in the past.
The fact that a black man (descendant of slaves or not) made it to the presidency just 40 years after desegregation in a country where the vestiges of segregation still poison the national mind and heart is historically huge.
Hillary Clinton was nailed because of her reference to a ‘rotten Jew’.
I don’t recall any such incident.
The Malta Independent website is still not functioning 100% – and they have confirmed this with a note at the top. It is rather irritating trying to read the news when up comes an advert. on the left hand side covering part of the article.
Hopefully this will be rectified sooner than later when the newspaper website is up and running soon.
If I am not mistaken they will have a live comments system too, same as The Times. That is very good because we will not have to rely on The Times only to place our comments.
The live comments system is up and running. You need to register before using it.
Yes I know that thanks and have already done so. However my complaint was that I still cannot read the news articles etc. properly so I would think that the website is still undergoing some tests.
“not functiioning 100%” is a generous description. I find the Independent website to be unreadable on my computer. Surely they could have tested and repaired their new format before inflicting it on the reading public.
Agree. Even though their previous website was somewhat amateurish, at least it worked.
Their new one does not even allow one to view Daphne’s column on the day it is published. I suffer from withdrawal.
Buy the bloody thing.
[Daphne – John lives in Buffalo, New York, so he can’t do that.]
I suppose not.
Oh look, Franco’s turned green.
Buffalo? That’s not Bubaqra Jozef !
Just joking.
Shrink the display to fit your screen. It works and is perfectly readable.
I can read it only my 13″ screen with no problem at all.
It was a very tight election, and the results could have gone either way. But, for the second campaign in a row, Obama and the Domocratic organization have shown how a scientific campaign is conducted–and then won by getting out the vote.
Certainly the demographics in the U.S. are changing, as “white” voters dropped below 72%, by another 2% from the previous election. The Republican Party is still 90% supported by “whites,” and their brand of conservatism is seen increasingly as more extreme.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party has always appealed to a variety of minority constituencies, not only racial and economic, but on gender issues and general civil rights. And on the ballot in four States, it seems that voters have approved gay marriage for the first time in an election.
It is clear the on popular vote, Americans are nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. The vast country spaces of America are Republican in the majority. Democrats are more likely centered in cities and urban centers; are multi-racial; largely middle and working class; and younger, and more supported by women for social-economic reasons. But there is a general cultural divide in America regarding values supported by their respective political parties.
In Malta, if Party comparisons were to be made. The U.S. Democrats are more moderate than Malta’s Nationalist Party. And the U.S. Republican Party is more conservative & right-wing–more like Malta’s Labour Party, which seems to represent a rarer conservative & Left-wing party.
In Malta the Party of change, in its natural course is the Nationalist Party, although it has its segments of religious conservatism; but on social-economic issues, where it counts, the PN as a European political party is far more liberal than the U.S. Democratic Party, which also has its more liberal elements within a mainstream politic philosophy.
The test of any political party is the substantive value and success of its policies. In divided political environments, support depends upon its ability to address the political realities of the real world. Without that pragmatic success, short-term political gains very easily may translate into long-term political and societal loses.
I’m afraid I disagree with everything you wrote here.
PN is anything but liberal on the economy. Economic liberalism would do away with the huge list of state handouts that are crippling the Maltese economy.
Don’t think you’re really ‘afraid’ to disagree, Baxxter.
And I am ‘proud’ to agree that the PN should clamp down on the freebies.
This is an important point, and I feel we have been missing it since 1987. The PN does not have liberal economic policies. Not by any stretch.
The thing is that people compare it to Labour, pre-1987, 1996-1998 or in its current incarnation.
No one would take open and free markets as a definition of liberalism. I mean that’s pretty much a given, like gender equality or universal suffrage.
I could go on, but I have a CV to spruce up and send off, so I’ll just use bullet points.
WHY PN IS NOT LIBERAL:
– It kept funding bankrupt companies like Malta Drydocks, Malta Shipbuilding, SeaMalta and AirMalta out of the public coffer. A liberal would have let the market decide, and not get the state to intervene.
– It lavishes public money on unproductive services and sections of the population. They contribute nothing to Malta’s GDP, yet PN has made state aid an article of faith.
– Many products and services are still heavily subsidised. The most blatant example are utility bills, which do not reflect true market prices.
– PN has made sacred cows out of public funding for free education and healthcare. A liberal would never allocate funds according to ideology.
– Malta’s labour costs are high, not because of high salaries, but because social security output does not match input. A liberal would have encouraged private pensions and health insurance.
– Taxis, stevedores and undertakers. No liberalism there.
– Finally, and most importantly, liberalism is all about moving capital, putting it to work. Malta’s economy has only one outlet for investment – the construction industry, helped along by the most illiberal government contracts, where party representatives sit on the national planning agency board.
In order to gauge whether the PN is liberal or not, we must look northwards, not inwards, for Malta has a long history of state intervention in the economy. The “sptar b’xejn” mantra is a case in point. Hospitals were free at least from 1530 onwards, along with generous insurance and pension schemes for anyone employed by the Order (which incidentally is the real reason the Maltese got pissed off at the French – they put a stop to freebies).
I wrote about this in my economics PhD thesis, “How much is the fish?: The origins of the north-south liberal-protectionist divide.”. It is available online on the University of Heidelberg’s website.
Excellent discourse, Baxxter. And totally agree.
However, how does one convince a centuries old mindset that times have overtaken them.
There is a living historical context to every social-political environment, whether the U.S. or Malta; I’ve lived 45 years in the former and the last 20 years in Malta.
The PN has been engaging in the privatization of the several formerly bankrupt companies mentioned by Baxxter, to the chagrin of the PL.
Subsidized services, “blatantly utility bills”, seem to reflect a social conscience for those who truly have difficulty paying (although we all enjoy a partial subsidy) and what may be regarded as transitional political realities as wealth is created regarding general GDP.
Unsustainable and uncontrolled debt would be an enemy in any economy. A certain amount of debt is necessary and appropriate; debt-free is ideal. Bill Clinton, the Democratic President, achieved that once.
I agree that it is regressive to fund education and health services for those who can easily pay for them. But those who can easily pay for them theoretically (if not actually) pay (or are supposed to pay) a higher (fairer and proportionate) income tax in Malta.
The U.S. does not enjoy any tax-free income, where every dollar of income is taxable. Not so in Malta, which is quite remarkable and a liberal benefit of the Maltese system.
The PN’s focus on job creation (and its success), education, and health is a commendable political priority and accomplishment, its investment in human capital.
And the advantages enjoyed by Malta would be highly regarded by a “liberal” (and “moderate”) Democrat in the U.S. (even by the wealthy liberals), although these would be quite firmly opposed by so-called “fiscal conservative” Republicans, who would opposed “Big” Government, as they also would favour their tax benefits to the wealthy in their trickle down theories of Darwinian philosophical ilk (to the disadvantage of those who truly may need support from a socially responsive government).
@ H. P. Baxxter
Fibber. Keine Ergebnisse.
I can hardly wait for your other treatise on mass emigration in 2013; ‘So long, and thanks for all the fish. What Labour did to the White Rocks’
A raconteur’s job is to lie beautifully.
In a concession to Daphne’s main thesis, there was no surprise in Obama’s victory, unless one may have been listening to the political media pundits instead.
According to Nate Silver’s methodology, described in his book “The signal and the noise”, Obama had the election advantage over Romney, with an 83.6% probability of being re-elected:
http://thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-november-7-2012-nate-silver?xrs=synd_facebook
According to the model, Obama had the clear statistical advantage, so the election was not as close as many of the Republicans may have desired.
“The Victory Lab” by Sasha Issenberg explains the marketing methodologies which Obama’s campaign used to determine by segmentation analysis how individuals would vote.
That’s how the Obama election team put together their focused campaign and identified their electoral college victory with 51% popular vote.
I seriously hope the power of incumbency works its magic on us too, but am I being too hopeful?
Now is the time to reduce that tax rate from 35% to 25% for those earning up to euro 60 thousand.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121107/local/maltese-economic-growth-is-picking-up-eu.444389
It is a sad day today.
The end of the America we once knew,
It now has a president elected by hHspanics who have been promised to legalise their illegal immigrant relatives, women who want abortion services as part of national heath care, Hollywood degenerate stars with a grudge against anything American and unemployed Blacks who wanted to give him a seconnd chance just because he is black.
Well, I suppose they deserve what’s coming to them. Pity we will all suffer as well.
The last superpower is gone, taken over by minority groups wanting to suck the state.
Last time I checked, this superpower was home to most of the world’s new technologies, most of its Nobel Laureates, most of its military capability, and most of its economic brains.
Oh and they got Bin Laden too.
What I mean to say is that we Europeans need the US if we are to face up to China.
Leslie, you’re so far off base.
The Republicans got whomped (well, lost) because they didn’t read the demographic reality.
You appear to be just as archaic.
Oh, forgot. The dinosaurs forgot to adapt also.
Whether he likes it or not, Obama will still get sucked into war with Iran.
Israel now has no choice but to go it alone, and alone it will go, with or without Obama.
The Democrats have this nasty habit of shying away from the world’s international crises and when they finally realize it, it is then almost too late.
They did that in WW2, during the 1979 hostage-taking crises in Iran and still seem hell-bent on avoiding any crises with the present Iranian leadership.
Israel go it alone? They may be self-obsessed megalomaniacs but they’re not suicidal.
Agree. Surrounded by millions of rabid ragheads, what do you expect them to do? (Daphne, don’t upload if the comment is too offensive to the bleeding hearts).
A poster in Ohio,which is refered to as the deciding state,read GM alive – Osama bin laden dead.
Mitt Romni ma kienux bizzejjed, kellhom bzonn imqar mitejn biex forsi jaghmlu xi haga.
The values a person holds are not determined by their race, gender or sexuality.
The belief that someone belonging to an oppressed or minority group is better qualified to champion the cause of the group is a nonsense.
Margaret Thatcher is not known for her contribution to women’s liberation despite being elected on the back of the movement’s ideals.
It is a well known fact that those who climb the metaphoric ladder from the bottom tend to pull it behind them.
‘t is a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.
Or put in layman’s terms: you can tell a shithole by the turds that pass through it.
Like that, John, Did you write it? Many Maltese politicians should take heed.
Shakespeare Act One Scene 2 Julius Caesar
Thanks, John. Still stuck on ‘The Midsummers Night Dream’.
Must be something about the rock.
Check that: ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Loved it, but was more interested in the content than the title.
Franco wouldn’t understand.
Thank goodness, Romney hasn’t won.
He fosters the same policies which drove the world economy to the pits in 2008: deregulation, tax cuts for the rich and corporations, and unnecessary wars.
@ H.P. Baxxter
The title of your dissertation sounds interesting, pity the search yielded no results.
La Redoute should have saved you the bother. Tempting though wasn’t it?
Smashing title innit? And it’s not a dissertation but a PhD thesis. If you got the breath back, it’s the first page of the second chapter.
You certainly have a creative mind. It makes one wonder what you do for a living.