Czech daily papers have commented on Tuesday’s re-election of the Democratic Party candidate for President of the USA, saying the voters found Barack Obama to be the more comprehensible, reliable candidate despite the constrained results of his government so far. According to the Czech press, Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney correctly bet on people’s dissatisfaction with Obama’s effectiveness throughout the country, but failed to offer a better alternative.
While Obama achieved only a rather small advantage over Romney in the vote count, that is not decisive in the American system. He won the necessary majority of the electoral college, whose members will formally confirm the election in December, and ensured himself a second four-year mandate.
"Obama defended his presidency, but he will be the first President in the history of the United States to enter a second term with a smaller electoral gain than the one that brought him his first term," writes a commentator for Hospodářské noviny (HN).
"The historic election of the first Black person to the White House was accompanied by many hopes. However, his results were often constrained," commentators in Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote.
"Obama’s economic policy cannot be considered successful. During his government, the USA declined in terms of international competitiveness," a commentator for Lidové noviny (LN) opined.
Czech commentators said Romney was betting the American voters would not be satisfied with the past four years of Obama’s government. Despite this, Obama managed to scrape out a victory.
The LN commentator said demographics were partially decisive in the US elections because Democrats have constantly promoted the interests of American Blacks and scored points with immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic. "The combination of entrepreneurs’ hunger for cheap labor and the political influence of current immigrants means the government in practice only grudgingly fights against illegal immigration," LN writes.
According to estimates, Obama was supported by 93 % of Blacks and 69 % of Hispanics. "The number of Hispanics in the USA is growing and their political participation is also. The Democratic Party has gained approximately 1.7 % of their support every four years, and that condemns the Republicans to playing the role of the party of a future white minority," the LN commentator adds.
According to commentaries in MfD, Obama only partially succeeded with his economic policy. "Obama’s interventions contributed to further state debt, but may have averted a deeper, longer-lasting economic crisis," the paper writes.
The Czech press primarily reports that Obama’s victory was aided by the fact that Romney did not perform as a decisive, strong candidate. "This wasn’t just about the fact that, unlike Obama, he was unable to win over voters on a personal level. He primarily did not win them over to his vision. Sometimes he was radically right-wing, which scared centrist voters, and sometimes he was surprisingly moderate, which of course just obscured what he really believed," the HN commentator wrote.
MfD commentaries described Obama as being "like a relative whom one doesn’t have to particularly care for, but who is a member of the family… When push comes to shove, he can be relied on… Obama is rarely enthusiastic, but he is comprehensible, in his own way. He ordered the killing of Osama bin Ladin, and when Sandy rushed in, he was on the job."
