Wait, was there an election recently?

When I was back in Michigan for my sister's wedding, I was lucky enough to be able to cast my vote in the recent election (though I had originally planned on voting absentee). Obviously everyone has an opinion on politics whether it is well informed or not and I am not going to share my own personal views here. (We all know that Facebook is the real venue for spouting off on the state of things in the world and NOT for pictures of parties, your pets and status updates about what you ate today or a ste-by-step breakdown of your daily schedule).

Anyway, what I do find interesting is the European/Spanish view of the election and its outcome. This morning I heard that 75% of Europeans were behind President Obama in his bid for re-election. Here in Spain people seem overjoyed. The coverage of the campaigns, voting and outcomes has been INCREDIBLE for me to see, especially coming from a country that seems to really not give a damn about what is happening outside our own political realm. I am not ashamed to say that before moving I was pretty clueless. Now I am getting an education. Europeans on the other hand are very dependent and aware of American politics. On Wednesday almost the entire morning newscast was devoted to our election. They showed entire speeches, had pundits analyzing, showed maps. In general, people are glad to see President Obama re-elected. I was even congratulated yesterday at work, like we dumb Americans finally got it right. I think they are hoping that somehow our government is going to solve deep-rooted economic and social issues here overseas. The real longterm outcomes of the election remain to be seen.

It is also interesting to try to explain the differences between the electoral college and the popular vote (people are still trying to wrap their minds around the second Bush administration). To people used to have a bazillion political parties I think the idea of only have 2 options is also odd. On this point I tend to agree.

Don't think I forgot to write a blog about my sister's wedding. There is one in the works. Jose decided we needed to save 10 euro a month by switching internet and now it is going super slow. What is a blog about a wedding without photo evidence of the good time? As soon as I can get the uploader working I will publish the post.

  

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