ELECTION REFLECTION

ELECTION DAY 2008 was the first time I actually attended a polling station since becoming a US citizen. Not wanting to wait in line, the people in our house arrived well before opening time. I got to be the first person to vote and by the time I had voted, there was quite a line of folk waiting for their turn. I had previously voted but, as a Washington State resident, I had voted by mail (by poking chads out of an IBM computer card and sending it back by post). However, this was my first Presidential Election.

As noted in my earlier posting, I admit I was a little apprehensive about using the machine (instead of poking out chads or, as in Australia, using pencil and paper to record my ballot) but everyone was friendly and helpful. The machine was one of the older type and simple enough to use. Now, in the aftermath of that historic day, I have found myself musing on some of the differences between the two countries of which I am a citizen in the handing over of power.

Things are a little more complicated in this part of the world. The President is independent from the Congress and may not always have support from his own party even when it has the majority in the house of representatives. In my other land, the leader of the party that wins the election becomes the Prime Minister and is active in the lower house, hopefully busy on putting into place policies argued during the election period. It gets a little more complicated if the Prime Minister (PM) leads a minority government and has to contend with getting a bunch of independent members to support government policy. Even so, the PM can expect to have the support of his party. With the US style separation of powers, this t'aint necessarily so.

Then there is the long transition period between the election in early November and the Inauguration of the President late in the following January. So you have a 'Lame Duck' President on the one hand, and the chap you have just elected on the sidelines waiting to assume power. Elsewhere one week it is the current PM and, once the election is finished, it is the next PM...move out and move in!

When things are relatively stable, this ought not produce much anxiety...but, with things in crisis on the financial, and perhaps also, political front it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck just a tad. A urgent question seems to be, Having gone to so much trouble to get a President, how can we ensure he gets sufficient support from his party?

President-Elect Obama seems like a very smart fellow and very much inclined to surround himself with chaps just as smart or more so. He has the quality of listening to others, or so it would appear, and his Vice President-Elect certainly knows how the ropes work in Washington, DC. However, there are powerful senior congress members and senators who might easily thwart his intentions...not to mention that hidden body of government in the US, the kingdom of lobbyists. Let's hope too that the Fourth Estate, the press, will take the role of independent criticism of government and formulation of issues seriously. That would be a change from their performance over the last eight years. Rather too many of them, for comfort, are under the control of that ex-Australian press mogul.

I guess this means that we all have to be on our mettle and to be sure to give the new President the sustained support he will need to guide the US through extremely difficult times.