Obama without drama

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The voting day, which completed a two -year election campaign, once again demonstrated that the American president was not in vain nicknamed "Obama No Drama). Mitt Romni dangled between the election site in Massachusetts, where he voted (Obama voted early), and meetings with voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania. At that time, Obama remained in Chicago, calmly gave a dozen media interviews from the “doubting” states, jumped to the local headquarters, made several calls to voters to convince them to vote for him, and even managed to participate in a traditional basketball game with his close associates and dinner with his family.

My visit to the election centers of Obama in Chicago, where the volunteers phoned the lists of voters in the undeniable states, showed that no one was very nervous there. On South Vabash Street, dozens of volunteers met a wide smile of a cardboard Obama with his wife at the entrance and a small doll of Vice President Joe Biden on the table. Frank Diaz, a former banker, now retired, spent three weeks at the headquarters, five hours every day, trying to convince the inhabitants of Wisconsin and Ayov to vote for Obama, made 200 calls every day. Republicans, says Diaz, openly rude. But if he managed to convince at least a couple of thousand democrats not to be too lazy and go to vote, he did his job. "I personally have no doubt for a second that he would win - I never doubted. But I am ready to do everything to happen." Personally, he is most impressed by Obama's attitude to education. “America rolled up in 17th place in the world, I want it to take the first again. And the president wants the same,” says Diaz.

After many hours of telephone conversations, he decided not to go to a party in honor of Obama in the local center, but to sit in front of the TV, armed with coffee, and follow the calculation of the voices, "until they count the latter." The latest votes, by the way, will be calculated after the election. For example, voters in the States, where, according to the new laws, they demand to submit a passport that forgot him at home, voted, but the voice will not be counted without confirmation of their personality.

The volunteers do not give out scenarios, how to say with voters, but there are still rules: posters are hanging on the walls, reminiscent that you can’t drop the phone (no matter what they tell you) - and you cannot be upset. Another advice is to speak quietly, like Michelle Obama to be listened to. Obama portraits are also hanging there - one is written in oil, the other with a pencil - and the newspaper photos of Obama, embracing the Sandy, who suffered from the hurricane. There is also a Watman, on which it says: “Hope is ...” and hundreds of hand -inscribed definitions: “Hope is a good job and not a lot of debts after the university”, “Hope is employment”, “Hope is“ Latin ”in the Supreme Court (Obama appointed two women to the Supreme Court: Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor -“ Own ”for Latin countries America).

Voting in the US election requires preliminary registration. Some remembered this on the last day and lined up in the election commission in order to receive a printout with the address of their polling station. It was not without trouble: the economic crisis led to a reduction in polling stations in Chicago, and many came to vote not where necessary. However, in Chicago Obama there was nothing to worry about - it was not easy to meet the Republicans in polling stations.

Lucy Herrera, a lawyer who migrated from Mexico 20 years ago, received citizenship in 2008, "just to have time to vote for Obama for the first time." Obama, however, has not yet carried out serious reforms in order to determine the status of 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and broke the record of illegal deportations, but she believes that Romni hopes for sure. "We are talking about honest workers who came here in the hope of a better life. I believe that Obama is not deaf to their problems."

31-year-old Alexis Dragles came to the polling station with five-year-old daughter Ella. In her opinion, the most important topics of these elections are the economy and the rights of women. "Romni, in my opinion, simply does not understand the problem of ordinary mortals. He once offered students who want to open a business, lend money from parents. Personally, I do not know the parents who have such money."

In 2008, the Chicago Democrats gathered to celebrate Obama’s victory in the open-air in Grant Park, not far from which the Obama Central Headquarters is located in one of the skyscrapers. On Tuesday at night, it rained in Chicago. Thousands of Obama supporters gathered in McCormic Plais, in a huge concrete building, in a room decorated with a large flag of the United States and the decorations of a patriotic red-blue-white tricolor, waiting for the announcement of the results.

In the Republicans camp, the defeat was smells a few days ago. For example, Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, more than other Sandy, who suffered from Hurricane, and the irreconcilable critic of Obama, met with the president and praised him for operational assistance to the state after the disaster. At the same time, he refused to take part in Romny's election event. Later, Christie explained that the position of his state does not allow him to be distracted by such matters.

On lawns in Jainsville, Wisconsin, where the Republican candidate for vice presidents Paul Ryan lives, his name appeared on two different pre-election posters-as a candidate for vice presidents and candidate for re-election to Congress, since the Visconsin law allows him to take part in two races at once. If Romny loses, he is unlikely to get a run again, but the 42-year-old floor to Ryan, this race can help become an independent presidential candidate in the future. Republicans, apparently, will retain the majority in the lower house of Congress, so that Ryan clearly shines a brilliant future in his party.

I ask one of the most ardent supporters of Mitt Romni, Texas Eric Jacobson, who managed to collect more than 600 thousand dollars from sponsors to the Republican’s election campaign, was it time to change the electoral system to something more modern? It turns out that nine of 50 states decide the outcome of the elections. Is it honest?

"If the elections were decided by popular voting, El Gore would be president instead of George Bush and not a single candidate in his mind would go behind the votes to Dubuk, Iowa. They would have arranged events only in California, Florida and New York. And what is happening in these coastal states with their tendency to liberalism? Dubs, budget deficit. The states like Texas - the situation is different there.

He himself is a native of Michigan, a state who is clearly gratitude to Obama for the automobile industry he saved for federal money. As a former General Motors worker, he prefers to get around this slippery topic. “I am glad that the company got to my feet, but now there are more important questions on the agenda,” he says. And does not understand the attacks on Romny. “He has Midas's hands. Everything that he was doing in his life was successful. Does the people really do not want the president who can do successful projects? He was successful in business, he saved the Olympics, the state of Massachusetts. And Obama? Maybe he succeeded in this, but the management of the strongest country in the world requires more qualification.”

In the late evening after the elections, when they had already begun to declare the first voting results in the States, complete euphoria and fun reigned in the McCormic Center, as if there were no thick concrete walls of the slush Chicago night. The volunteers shouted, danced, waved their hands, took pictures. “It was rolled-as if again 2008,” Obama’s supporters did not hide joy.

In the losers - a "party of tea party" in a number of states, well, of course, the large family of Romni, who actively participated in the election campaign.

In the winners: Paul Ryan (candidate for the post of vice president from the Republicans), who received free advertising by 2016, gays (equal marriages were held in a referendum in three states, in Wisconsin-the victory of Tammy Baldwin), women in general and immigrants, to whom the democrats promise additional benefits. Youth 18-29 years old-60% voted for Obama, 36%-for Romny.

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