Obama re-elected

President Barack Obama won a resounding 281 to 201 electoral votes over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in what had been billed earlier as a closely contested presidential race.

But the results showed that Obama handily won his reelection bid by one of the largest electoral college votes in US history.

As of press time, Obama had just claimed victory. Romney has conceded his smashing defeat. This is something which will haunt Romney for years to come. He may not have been aware that Republicans, themselves, had not really rallied behind him.

CNN and other television networks had predicted a cliffhanger bout between the two contestants. They zeroed in on the pivotal votes of several key states which had proven decisive in the past like Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, and other equally decisive states.

Of course, we, Pinoys did not have much stakes in the US presidential election. But, whether we like it or not, most Pinoys or Am-Phil had been rootling all the time for Obama with whom they had related.

For most of us, there was the puzzling electoral college voting on the Presidential election. And it took the TV stations several times to clarify what they actually meant since they are a unique feature of the American presidential contest.

Of course, we just have a smaller area of the number of electors in our country, but it takes a long time for us to be able to know exactly how a presidential electoral contest is finally resolved by the Senate as the accounting body.

What could have taken as much as one or two months, was over by about 24 hours or less. Shows you that this is something that we could emulate but possibly refuse to follow. His second terms does not immediately relieve Barack of his headache. In the place, the House of Representatives is still controlled by Republicans who can still choke off Obama’s legislative agenda.

They had done this in the past. And they are still determined to do the same if only to embarrass Obama. Or so analysts think.

But now equipped with a second mandate, Obama is expected to be a more firm advocate of reforms for the middle class and the moderates of the population. These were the ones who had tossed him over the magic 270 electoral votes that brought TV crews to announce his reelection.

Latino and other minority votes helped boost Obama to the winning line. But we must admit that he had as much support from white Americans, too.

Anyway, I guess we might as well leave it to the American commentators to explain what happened to Obama and Romney. At least, we can be sure that we remain in the whiskers of Obama who had shown to a certain extent that the Philippines is still considered America’s ally in this part of the Pacific.

***

Franz Espina has returned to Manila and Tagaytay. He has left us hoping that somehow we can expect him to return here before Christmas to make us his luscious dishes.

The eldest son of my late brother, Graciano, Franz has become an outstanding chef. He is connected with several restaurants in Manila as the chef and is a consultant in several other food firms.

Actually, Franz left us but only after he had shared with Giancarlo Pasolini, my grandson of Mate, some of the secrets of mixing the various ingredients to come up with the most delicious dishes I have tasted in years.

Come back soon, Franz.*

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