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DAILY SUN Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Foreign Affairs US poll 2012
Obama leads with narrow edge over Romney in Harts
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he first results, by tradition, were tallied in Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, both in New Hampshire, shortly after midnight (0100 a.m EDT). Obama and Romney each received five votes in Dixville Notch. In Hart’s Location, Obama had 23 votes to nine for Romney and two for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. The town in the state’s northeast corner has opened its polls shortly after midnight each election day since 1960 but yesterday’s draw was the first in its history. The close presidential race raises the prospect of a disputed outcome similar to the 2000 election, which ended with a U.S. Supreme Court decision favoring George W. Bush over Al Gore after legal challenges to the close vote in Florida. Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have assembled legal teams to deal with possible voting problems, challenges or recounts. Yesterday’s outcome will influence the direction of a government and country facing chronic federal deficits and debt as well as sluggish economic growth in the wake of a devastating recession and financial industry collapse that confronted Obama when he took office as the first African-American president in January 2009. Voters also will determine the makeup of a new Congress, choosing all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 senators. Analysts expect Republicans to maintain control of the House and Democrats to keep their narrow advantage in the Senate.
Obama in tears of appreciation
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bama’s eyes welled with tears as he thanked the people “who’ve given so much to this campaign over the years,” during a stop in Des Moines, Iowa, a place where his first campaign gained an early foothold in his first run for the White House. “You took this campaign and made it of your own and you organized yourselves block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, county by county, starting a movement that spread across the country,” Obama said wiping away away tears three times as he talked. In North Carolina, first lady Michelle Obama exhorted voters to endure the expected long lines to vote on Tuesday, telling a Charlotte crowd: “Once you are in that line, do not get out. Don’t get out. And the waits could be long. We need you to wait it out.”
Voters in storm-ravaged areas express relief
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oters in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey expressed relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation from Superstorm Sandy. Lines were long in Point Pleasant, N.J., where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their hometowns. Many people still have no power eight days after Sandy pummeled the shore. “Nothing is more important than voting. What is the connection between voting and this?” said Alex Shamis, a resident of hard-hit Staten Island, gesturing to his mud-filled home.
Voters wait in line to receive absentee ballots at the Wayne County Community College Northwest Campus in Detroit yesterday. Photo:AP
Oil, gold prices jump, dollar flat on Election Day
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all Street kept a close eye on the United States dollar, crude oil and gold on Election Day because the price movements of these assets could offer clues as to who will be in the White House the next four years and how traders feel about it. In afternoon trading yesterday, gold was up $34.40, or 2%, to $1,721.80. A spike in gold suggests that Obama will win a second term, says Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. Obama’s plans to stimulate the economy using borrowed money will make paper assets like the dollar
Provisional ballots
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US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann cast their votes in the US presidential elections in Belmont, Massachusetts yesterday. Photo:AFP
rovisional ballots were the latest legal skirmish in the critical battleground state of Ohio, where Secretary of State Jon Husted’s decision on how they can be cast was challenged in federal court. Advocates and lawyers for labor unions contend Husted’s order would lead to some provisional ballots being rejected improperly because the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot is being placed on voters, not poll workers as in the past. A provisional vote allows a person to have his or her say, but the ballot is subject to review and verification of eligibility.
less valuable. And gold holds its value in inflationary times. Crude oil also gained sharply yesterday, rising $2.33, or 2.7%, to $87.98 in afternoon trading. Some on Wall Street think if Romney wins, he could take a hardline stance on Iran, which could lead to geopolitical conflict that could lead to a oil price spike, Krosby adds. The price of crude oil has been hit by a weak global economy. Romney, who is viewed as
more fiscally conservative than Obama, is more conducive to a stronger dollar, says Richard Suttmeier, chief market strategist at ValuEngine.com. Romney is also not a fan of the Federal Reserve’s easymoney policies, which have goosed stock markets but weakened the dollar. He has said he would replace Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the architect of the easy-money policy, when his term expires in early 2014. Wall Street
is betting that if Romney becomes president, he would nominate a central banker to head the Fed who favors tighter monetary policy. “The perception around the world is if Obama is re-elected the deficit will keep going up and there will be a lack of fiscal discipline,” Suttmeier said. If the U.S. dollar spikes in value, it could signal that traders believe Republican Mitt Romney has a good shot at unseating President Obama, Suttmeier said.
Obama congratulates Romney for a hard fight
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resident Barack Obama congratulated Republican rival Mitt Romney yesterday for running a hard-fought race for the White House and expressed confidence he would win re-election during a stop at a local campaign office to thank volunteers on Tuesday. “I ... want to say to Governor Romney congratulations on a spirited campaign. I know that his supporters are just as engaged and just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today,” Obama said as volunteers made phone calls encouraging supporters to get to the polls. “We feel confident we’ve got the votes to win, but it’s going to depend ultimately on whether those votes turn out. And so I would encourage everybody on all sides just to make sure that you exercise this precious right that we have that people fought so
hard for us to have.” Obama made calls to volunteers from the campaign office to thank them for working for his re-election. “I expect that we’ll have a good
night, but no matter what happens, I just want to say how much I appreciate everybody who supported me, everybody who’s worked so hard on my behalf.”
Sarah Obama, (3R), step-grandmother to President Barack Obama sits with religious local leaders during a press conference held at her homestead yesterday in the village of Kogelo in western Kenya, where Obama’s father was born. “I pray for him, for God to help him. It is a tough race so i have prayed for him. Photo:AFP