U.S. Presidential Debate vol. 2

We are arriving into one of the most crucial debates of the current American presidential elections. These televised TV-debates are game changers in American politics. We have seen Presidents such as Ronald Reagan dismantling his opponents arguments with clever one liners and charm. Some candidates have simply failed or frozen on facts. Which has shown suprising cracks in them. Americans love confidence and firmness. And expect the president to be both physically and mentally fit to be in charge of the worlds largest military forces. Although the U.S. president has surprisingly little power with regard to the checks-and-balances in the American political system, yet he/she does yield a tremendous amount of influence. Although the president is an executive chief he is also the leader of his or her respective party. And can thus get a ''cooperative'' congressman to propose policy motions into the congress. The president is not only able to do so but actually expected to do so (although he or she can never do motions personally). Even if his party is not in charge of the under and over house he''ll have a lot of leverage as the executive chief (with his presidential veto). These combinations leads to a situation where the president truely is a powerful person - if they want, can and know how to play the game of politics correctly. The responsibilities and strain can be great for a president and, thus the Americans desire for a physically and mentally fit person can be understood. Just for an example think how long J.F. Kennedy had to stay up during the Cuba crisis. Other countries may prefer some other sort of qualities above those... but it can be justified understood that those qualities are especially important in the U.S.


Enjoy the debate and don't forget to do the N E C analysis.

Normative = Idea of how the world should function.
Empirism = ''Facts'' The understanding of how the world is with all its goods and troubles.
Constructivism = How these troubles should be solved.



The debate turned out to be quite interesting. Obama is clearly on the defensive while Romney has taken the offensive path. Obama improved his form on this debate but Romney was not weak either. Romney and Obama criticized each others policies. The debate was tense and fierce.