American Civilisation

THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2012

Barack OBAMA (democratic nominee)

Versus

Mitt ROMNEY, the former Massachusetts Governor, (republican nominee)

What are the most relevant points of the campaign? What are the mains discrepancies between the two candidates? What are the differences between a French and an American campaign?

In my essay, I will first try to sum up what I have understood on the 2012 presidential campaign of USA and then give possible contrasts between the French and the American campaign.

Within the three presidential debates, both candidates had to argue on several issues such as the economy (more specifically creating jobs), health care, the role of government, illegal immigration, gun control, foreign policies… I will highlight what strikes me the most.

First, both nominees have agreed to say that creating new jobs is a priority for them. However, they don't use the same scheme to explain how they will succeed to setup it. On the one hand, OBAMA emphasises a Keynesian approach, meaning that he is going to lower individual's taxes. So people can have more money "in their pocket". People can spend more money, thus the production will level up, which will lead to growth. According to me, in the actual economic context, a lot of people will rather save money than spend it because most of them have loose their faith in "future", so they want to be sure they have money to face it.

On the other hand, ROMNEY tells us about his approach based on companies (the offer). He will cut taxes to small businesses so that they can hire more people which will lead the US to growth. Moreover, according to him, those people will also pay more taxes because they will have a higher salary, which could help to balance the budget.

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