Obama's Hidden Defeat

The relief in German editorial offices is palpable. Barack Obama won the third and final debate on Wednesday night. Early estimates show that 48 percent of viewers considered him the victor, while only 40 percent think that Romney won. But that’s a weak showing for a sitting president.

Foreign policy is an area where a U.S. president normally scores points – incumbency gives him an invaluable leg up. But Barack Obama didn’t really get that bonus. At times, it looked like Romney was already in charge of the nation while Obama’s attacks completely missed their target.

Clearly, the debates decided nothing. The lead Obama enjoyed for so long in the national polls evaporated into thin air in the face of America’s persistent economic problems. State by state, Romney has been able to pull away from Obama over the past weeks.

Strange American Ways

In national U.S. elections, each of the 50 individual states, as well as the District of Columbia, is represented by electors, the number for each being determined by population. The candidate who receives the most popular votes of a given state wins all of the electoral votes. Romney is currently assured of getting 206 electoral votes compared to Obama’s 201. To be elected president, the candidates must win 270 electoral votes, and current trends seem to favor Romney.

This must come as a surprise to many Germans, since the German media reports little else but Romney’s “failures, misfortunes and mistakes.” Concerning Romney and his platform, one looks in vain for any serious reportage to the contrary. The picture presented to us is conservative and somehow backward. From the German point of view, however, there is much to recommend about Romney.

As with George W. Bush, Romney is so unpopular that any government would be tempted to think long and hard before committing itself to supporting any of his foreign policy adventures. Inhibitions about Obama would likely be far less, no matter which party were in power. Ninety percent of Germans say they would vote for Obama if they were allowed to do so. They don’t see the mess that he leaves in his wake after four years in office: high unemployment, poverty and record high energy prices. On the contrary, Germans see Obama as the eternal rock star and Nobel prize laureate who once gave a speech at Berlin’s Victory Column.