Becoming The President of the United States

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Process to Become the President of the United States

1. Must fulfill the requirements of being the president.( CLICK FOR REQUIREMENTS)

Primaries and Caucuses: All individuals have their own opinion on how the government should work. 

2.Candidates from each political party campaign to win the favor of their party members.

3. Caucus - Party members discuss their favored candidate to one another.

4. Primary - Party members vote for their favored candidate, in which they believe will reflect their own opinions of how the government should be run.

National Conventions:

5. Each party holds a a national convention to select a final presidential nominee.

6. During each convention, the finalist selects a vice presidential running mate.

Campaign to the Masses:

7. The presidential nominee travels throughout the nation, advertising their campaign. Many messages will be shown on advertisements, mainly social media.

General Election: The Popular Votes

8. People in every state vote for one president and vice president.

9. When these people vote, they are actually voting for a group of people, known as electors.

Electoral College:

10. Each state has a certain number of votes, depending on the representation in Congress. Whichever party garners the majority of popular votes, wins all of the electoral votes for that state.(CLICK TO VIEW MAP)

11. Each elector casts one vote following the general election.

12. Candidate who wins more than half (270/538) of the votes, wins.

Inauguration:

13. Congratulations! The President and the Vice-President are inaugurated in January.

Fun Facts About The Presidential Nominees!

Obama fun facts:
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father 
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He can speak Spanish
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

10 Romney fun facts: 
10 – He once worked as a security guard for Chrysler.
9 – He was once arrested for ‘disorderly conduct’ after he continued boating against a park ranger’s orders. 
8 – His full name is Willard Mitt Romney. 
7 – Mitt’s cousin, Meredith Romney was kidnapped in Mexico and held for 3 days in a cave. 
6 – Mitt's father was born in Mexico to American parents. 
5 – One of his biggest regrets is not having more children. 
4 – Romney is a Mormon.
3 – He once helped rescue a family of 6 in New Hampshire after their boat sank. 
2 – Hot dogs are one of Romney’s guilty food pleasures. 
1 – He has five sons.

The Economy

Obama:
Has said he doesn't want to raise taxes on the middle class, but would on the rich class. Revealed a plan in February to change the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%, and pay for the reduction by removing "dozens" of business tax breaks. Extend Bush-era tax cuts for those earning less than $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married). Plan would hurt small business owners, many of whom earn over $250,000 in hopes of making up some of the revenue lost by the government. Future plan to create $6.4 trillion annual deficits between 2013 and 2022. Unemployment rate hasn't changed much, rate still around 8.2%. Tried to improve manufacturing jobs in the United States and push exports through free trade agreements, and support education and training.

Romney:
Wants to cut taxes, reduce current top paid rate from 35% to 28%. Said he also plans to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax. Tax cuts are said to increase economic growth and fill in some of the revenue gap. He has prepared to limit deductions, exemptions, and credits to finish the job. Repeal the Affordable Care law and reducing federal government work force to reduce spending. Repeal health care reform, privatizing Amtrak, cut funding to Planned Parenthood, cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, and cut foreign aid.. Improve efficiency and effectiveness by reducing federal work force and waste. To increase jobs, he wants to put heavy investment in "Human Capital", retain workers and develop a competitive American workforce by raising visa caps for skilled workers.

President Debate 3. Monday: October 22, 2012

Location - Lynn University (Florida)

Topic - Foreign Policy

Process -  The topic will be divided into 6 time segments - 15 minutes each on the topics. Topics are announced several weeks in advanced. The moderator will open each segment with a question, then candidates will each have 2 minutes to respond.

Reactions - 

"Both candidates, they made it clear that they want to treat China as a partner and that they want China to play by the rules, he'll [Romney] designate China as a currency manipulator," - Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center in Beijing.

"So who won the debate today? I know who lost. Afghans. Little mention of war, except for w/drawal. Differences not so different from e/o," - Twitter user by the name Subel

President Debate 2. Tuesday: October 16, 2012

Location - Hofstra University (New York)

Topic - Town meeting, including foreign and domestic policy

Process - Citizens, who are undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization , will ask questions dealing on the topics. Candidates will each have 2 minutes to respond.

Reactions - 

"They have to keep those folks in mind. It's a much more intimate and up close adventure with voters. The candidate that makes a connection with the person asking the question is also making a better connection with the person back at home," - Candy Crowley, CNN Chief Political Correspondent

"Don't over-correct. Don't go from being too passive in the first debate to too aggressive in the second," - Paul Begala, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor

Vice President Debate. Thursday: October 11, 2012

Location - Centre College (Kentucky)

Topic - Domestic and Foreign Policy

Process - Topics are to be divided into 9 segments - 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask the question in which the candidates are to each have 2 minutes to respond.

Reactions - 

"The vice president came and showed fight. He showed his boss what it is to engage and engage and engage and attack and attack and attack," - John King, CNN Chief National Correspondent

"Even if we thought he was making good points, I think that they stepped on his good points. He was trying to cram everything in that he could that wasn't in the last debate to try and get it all out at once. But I don't think he made any kind of coherent argument as to why the Obama-Biden ticket should be re-elected." - Russ Schriefer, Senior Romney Campaign Adviser

President Debate. Wednesday: October 3, 2012

Location - University of Denver (Colorado)

Topic - Domestic Policy
Process - The topic will be divided into 6 time segments - 15 minutes each on the topics. Topics are announced several weeks in advanced. The moderator will open each segment with a question, then candidates will each have 2 minutes to respond.
Reactions -
"I think that Governor Romney is certainly a skilled debater. And last night he was able to elevate his level of performance. But he did not change the fundamental dynamics of this race, nor did he change some of the policies that actually got us into the economic mess that we have," - Martin O'Malley, Maryland Governor
"Obama didn't seem like he wanted to be there. He needs to be much more aggressive. He let Romney get away with stuff he shouldn't have." - John Geer, Chairman of Vanderbilt University's Political Science Department