With the United States presidential elections this week, Texas A&M University at Qatar recently hosted a lecture on the event. Delivered by Todd Kent, assistant dean for Academic Affairs and a member of the political science faculty at Texas A&M at Qatar, the lecture was sponsored by the US Embassy in Doha with a US State Department grant.
Held at the University’s campus at Education City, the lecture was attended by students, academics and staff from Texas A&M at Qatar, highlighting the interest in the looming election on November 6, where President Barak Obama will square off against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
In his lecture, Dr Kent explained the electoral process in the United States and the issues at stake for the 2012 poll along with campaigning techniques used by both parties in the lead up to election day, which is held the first Tuesday of November every four years.
Dr Kent explained the importance of opinion polling to the candidates’ campaigns and how they craft their messages, policies and strategies. He also explained that in the US electoral system, almost all of the 50 states are “winner take all.”
“Forty eight of 50 states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who finishes first,” Dr Kent said in the lecture. “A candidate thus can win some states by very narrow margins, lose other states by large margins, and win the electoral vote while losing the popular vote. In 2000, George Bush won the election with less total votes than Al Gore.”
Dr Kent said the candidates would be focusing on the eight “swing states” – Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin – where polling shows voters have not yet made up their minds.The Peninsula
