Tuesday 6th November

It is quite amazing that in a country as vast as America, with such a diverse population, that as election day looms there is barely a tissue paper between the two candidates.  And yet it happens quite often, more so than here when the last ‘too close to call’ election was 1992, when John Major pulled off a remarkable victory after trailing for years in the polls.  Yet in America, with just two parties there was the closest of races just 12 years ago when Bush won (or as conspiracy theorists would have it – stole) the election from Al Gore.  Bush won easily four years later on a tide of patriotism following 9/11, and there was never any real prospect of McCain beating Obama four years ago.

But now, it really is too close to call with different polls putting first Obama and then Romney one point ahead of the other.  It may well end up going down to the wire in a couple of states such as Ohio and Florida, which Obama needs to win in order to avoid being a one-term President and maybe setting the United States on the real road to oblivion.  Nobody knows that much about what Romney will do when in office, his popularity having more to do with getting rid of the hated Obama than what he has said.  But when we look at what he has done in his life so far it doesn’t augur well.  He has run Bain Capital for nearly thirty years, and has in the process destroyed many good companies and got rid of thousands of workers.  This was achieved by leveraged buyouts, where with mostly borrowed money, Bain acquired a majority of shares in a steady but unspectacular company.  They then forced the company to streamline, sack workers, and re-capitalise, often going bankrupt in the process.  Bain earns huge fees for its investors and always gets out before the shit hits the fan.  Gordon Gecko could well have been modelled on him.  Let us hope and pray that Obama wins, and that this man doesn’t become President and do the same thing to America herself.