The tragedy of the attacks is nothing compared to the free hand now given
George W. Bush to retaliate. Be very afraid. He can do anything he wants to
now.

From an e-mail to my mother (Tue Sep 11 17:09:34 2001):

We’re watching CNN now, too. No matter how many attacks are actually carried out they won’t be anything as dangerous as what the American public will allow George W. Bush to do.

It’s seven years later and we now know very well what has happened.

I am one American that is very glad that George W. Bush will no longer be president in 131 days.

Germany

Germans have one of the largest majorities saying US relations with the rest of the world
would improve under an Obama presidency and are among the largest majorities saying
relations would remain the same under John McCain. Nine times as many Germans favour
Obama than favour McCain.

• Sixty-five per cent in Germany would prefer to see Barack Obama elected president of
  the US, while just 7 per cent would prefer to see John McCain elected.
• More than 61 per cent say America’s relations with the rest of the world would improve in
  an Obama presidency, while 28 per cent say they would stay the same and 4 per cent
  say they would worsen. A majority (53%) believes the status of America’s relations
  would remain the same under McCain, similar proportions feel relations would improve
  (20%) or get worse (16%).
• Asked whether their perception of the US would fundamentally change if Barack Obama,
  an African-American, were elected US president, 52 per cent of Germans say that it
  would, and 27 per cent say that it would not.

The reason why the US has a two-party system has a lot to do with our winner take all elections. We have nothing like party lists based on proportional representation and we also have no 5 percent rule. In a winner take all system it’s always a plurality (the most, not necessarily the majority) of votes that determines the winner.

Because there are only two parties they also include a wider range of views than in more narrowly defined European parties.

In the Republican Party the right wing includes people that in Germany would belong to the Republican Party and NPD, moderates would likely be in the CDU/CSU and the left wing has views like the FDP.

In the Democratic Party members of the right wing would belong to the CDU/CSU, FDP or SPD. moderates would be CDU/CSU or SPD and the left wing more SPD and Green Party.

In elections it’s almost always necessary to get the votes of independents, so most of the people elected are moderates that have “moved to the center”. Party discipline is also much weaker than in parliamentary systems. This means that most offices are generally filled with fairly reasonable people.

the issues

The topics that are most important to voters, e.g. the economy, jobs, environment, etc.

VP

The abbreviation for Vice-President. There is no common abbreviation for “president”, except for POTUS (Presiden Of The United States), the code word used by the Secret Service.

running mate

The partner of the presidential or vice-presidential candidate. Sarah Palin in John McCain’s running mate and Barrack Obama and Joe Biden are running mates.

the ticket

The presidential and vice-presidential candidates of one party. The Democratic ticket is Barrack Obama and Joe Biden.

platform

The formal list of specific proposals by a party, e.g. “the Republican platform”, “the Democratic platform”

the Democratic party

Some Republicans like to call it the “Democrat party”, but this is incorrect

ballot, on the ballot

The piece of paper used for voting

The president and vice-president are not directly elected by the people and it is entirely possible for a candidate to get far less than 50 percent of the popular vote, and even less than his opponent, yet win the election. In fact, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, was elected with less than 38% of the vote!

What is important in U.S. presidential elections is not the number of individual votes, but the number of state elections that are won by a plurality of votes.

For example, in my home state, Washington, the winner of the presidential election gets 11 electoral votes. California, because it is the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes. In most states it’s a “winner take all” system. 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency.

Go to Wikipedia to read more about the Electoral College system.

Also, unlike parliamentary systems where the prime minister can simply resign if he believes he does not have enough support in the government, only one American president, Richard Nixon, has ever stepped down.

In parliamentary systems the resignation of the government leads to new elections. This would never be the case in the United States, because presidential elections are held regularly every four years on the first Tuesday in November (unless the first Tuesday is November 1, in which case the election is held on November 8). If an American president is impeached, tried and removed from office or if the president resigns (as in the case of Nixon) or dies (John Kennedy being the most recent example), then the vice-president becomes the new president until the next regularly scheduled election date. This is how Gerald Ford became president.

So, what happens if both the president and the vice-president die? The third in line is the Speaker of the House, currently Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco.

The main difference between parliamentary systems and the U.S. system is that in the United States presidential elections are held every four years without exception and that there is never a call for elections.

Let’s start with the basics by answering a simple question: What are the qualifications for becoming president of the USA?

This is spelled out in Article 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution of 1789:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

This means that to become president a person must be an American citizen born in the United States, be at least 35 years old and have lived at least 14 years in the USA.

Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Arnold Schwarzenegger are all American citizens and politicians, but do not qualify for the presidency because they were not born in the United States. An American friend of mine born to American parents while they were working in Argentina also does not qualify!

The twenty-second Amendment to the constitution also stipulates that a president may only be elected twice, so neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush can ever become president again.