Barack Obama was returned for his second and final term as President of the United States Tuesday night at the end of what's been described by the American news media as the costliest and nastiest presidential campaign in that country's history. The entire exercise held some salient lessons for our politicians which, if they do not heed, they too would be dealt the same humiliating fate as challenger Mitt Romney has suffered.
The most important is that dishonesty is not the proper way to achieve political office which, unfortunately, is practised by some of our people who seek governmental office at any cost.
I sat up many nights to take in the campaign rallies, television interviews and related events which were comprehensively covered by the American cable stations and I was saddened, amazed and sometimes amused at the naked misrepresentations and downright lies the candidates' surrogates were busy propagating shamelessly.
Both parties engaged in such but if had to draw up a scorecard I would easily give the GOP full marks in what is referred to as dirty tricks. One that easily comes to mind is the allegation that Obama went to a fund-raiser in Nevada almost immediately after the American Embassy in Benghazi was attacked and four American citizens, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in what is being called an act of terrorism even though the investigation is still ongoing.
This naked lie was repeated ad nauseam by the Republican's television talk show hosts even up to election day. The fact is Obama attended a rally of his party which was planned long before the Libyan tragedy occurred.
In fact, I was not completely surprised at the vicious falsehoods indulged in by the Republican media sycophants since one of them, who is known for his vitriolic language when discussing Obama on his television and radio shows, said one week after Obama took up office in 2008, that he was working to ensure that America's first black President became a one-term president.
This mantra was echoed by officials of that party who engaged in other acts of dishonest portrayals of Obama, who for his part, cannot be accused of engaging personally in similar situations. They also tried to pin the unhealthy economic position of America on Obama who at great risk to his presidency took unpopular actions including the much criticised stimulus programmes to shore up the country's economy,
He was also accused of being the nation's most-ever divisive leader, of course deliberately not acknowledging it was the GOP who used its majority in the Congress to block Obama's attempts at getting certain economic measures passed in a bi-partisan manner.
In his concessions speech Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Romney in a much-too-late stance called on both parties in the Congress and the Senate to work together for the betterment of the American people.
One wonders if the Republicans who used almost every trick in the book including misleading and disrespectful television ads, would accept that challenge in that they held on to Congress and the Dems retained the Senate. In effect, nothing much has changed except for a few members in each House losing their seats.
Only time will tell if the GOP politicians could put aside their political shotguns and truly join with Obama to restore the country's once-vibrant economy. Another thing that struck me on election day is that the mighty America suffers some of the same complaints we experience at our general elections; long lines, missing names on the electoral rolls and attempts to canvass outside polling stations.
This was not lost on Obama who in his acceptance speech said that those wrongs have to be put right. It was also being touted in the media that the race would have been tight, very close to be exact, but they were proved wrong by Obama who, up to the time of writing this, had taken 303 to Romney's 213 electoral votes, giving him a very clear win, having achieved the minimum 270 votes.
To the dismay of his Republican opponents, he won in every age category except senior citizens, even though the amount of young people who voted him four years ago was a little less on Tuesday and he swept away seven out of the nine battle ground states. Overall, even though I felt Obama would have won, I was cautiously optimistic and we are all waiting to see how America would improve or fall deeper into its economic dilemma during the ensuing term.
