not understanding how it work.

is congress like our upper house?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States

yes all ready reading

In basic terms – Congress is their house of parliament, has two house – House of Reps (lower house) and the Senate (upper house).

The President is outside of the Congress, and is elected directly.

For making a law – any of the three can initiate it, but all three must agree on it and approve it before it becomes law. Either house of Congress can block a law the President wants, the President can block a law which both houses agree to.

so
is the president elected out side of both the lower or upper house?

so he could be president but all most powerless if both parts of congress (house of Reps and Senate) are against him?

his election is nothing to do party_pants said:

In basic terms – Congress is their house of parliament, has two house – House of Reps (lower house) and the Senate (upper house).

The President is outside of the Congress, and is elected directly.

For making a law – any of the three can initiate it, but all three must agree on it and approve it before it becomes law. Either house of Congress can block a law the President wants, the President can block a law which both houses agree to.

robadob said:

so
is the president elected out side of both the lower or upper house?

so he could be president but all most powerless if both parts of congress (house of Reps and Senate) are against him?

his election is nothing to do

Yes. They like to call it “checks and balances”, they don’t want any system where one person can rule unchallenged.

it comes down a lot to political skills to negotiate things through the Congress. The party loyalties in Congress aren’t as rigid as what we have here. Moderates of either side might vote with a President from the opposing party on an issue of significance to them, even though others in the party might vote against. Since the President’s leadership doesn’t rely on leading the party in the house it isn’t considered such a big deal for members of Congress to vote their own way.

Obama is a Democrat.

do both party’s democrats and republicans have a leader of there party?

now congress has more republicans so there can stop any thing put forward.

dont think i like there way :(

robadob said:

Obama is a Democrat.

do both party’s democrats and republicans have a leader of there party?

now congress has more republicans so there can stop any thing put forward.

dont think i like there way :(

They can’t stop everything. The president can make Presidential decrees and other stuff. Basically some important stuff that needs an answer NOW, can be done by the president alone. Other less important stuff can be debated back and forth in the congress and reps.

robadob said:

Obama is a Democrat.

do both party’s democrats and republicans have a leader of there party?

now congress has more republicans so there can stop any thing put forward.

dont think i like there way :(

The House of Reps is dominated by the Republicans, the senate by the Democrats.

The party as an organisation doesn’t have a formal overall leader. The have a leader in each house, but it’s more a question of factions. They don’t all vote as they are told.

The system is different to ours. But – both systems do actually work. Which is better or worse is hard to say.

>>>Mr Obama won at least 303 Electoral College votes and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney 206, with Florida the only state yet to finalise its count.<<<

Why does Florida find counting so hard?

Electoral College votes? :)

Stealth said:

>>>Mr Obama won at least 303 Electoral College votes and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney 206, with Florida the only state yet to finalise its count.<<<

Why does Florida find counting so hard?

Waiting for postals and absentees I guess. They are usually the closest. In 2000 is was only a handful of votes in it for the whole state.

robadob said:

Electoral College votes? :)

US citizens elect someone to vote for them. It is one of the more interesting ways of electing a president. The person that has been voted in to vote for you can vote for the other guy if he feels like it. In effect, there are only about 366? people that actually vote for the Potus.

Kingy said:

robadob said:

Electoral College votes? :)

US citizens elect someone to vote for them. It is one of the more interesting ways of electing a president. The person that has been voted in to vote for you can vote for the other guy if he feels like it. In effect, there are only about 366? people that actually vote for the Potus.

And (I think) in some states all college votes go to the winner, and in other states it is pro-rata…

robadob said:

Electoral College votes? :)

Each state is worth a certain number of points based on population. A large state like California is worth 55 points, a small state like Vermont is worth 3. These points are called Electoral College Votes.

Whichever presidential candidate wins a simple vote in each state wins the whole bunch of ECVs that go with that state. The votes are not split. For example for a state worth 10, and the voting went 60/40 for Obama/Romney. Obama gets all 10, they are not split 6/4.

There is some formal process (or at least their used to be) where the votes are officially tallied up. A representative of each state turns up and announces the result in their state. This formal procedure is called the Electoral College.

The votes are not split. For example for a state worth 10, and the voting went 60/40 for Obama/Romney. Obama gets all 10, they are not split 6/4.

—————————
There are a few different system for allocating the college votes. Most use first past the post gets all. But Maine and Nebraska split the allocation along popular vote lines. There are other variations.

Stealth said:

The votes are not split. For example for a state worth 10, and the voting went 60/40 for Obama/Romney. Obama gets all 10, they are not split 6/4.

—————————
There are a few different system for allocating the college votes. Most use first past the post gets all. But Maine and Nebraska split the allocation along popular vote lines. There are other variations.

Fair enough – I was just generalising.

So all in all, it’s different in different states, no continuity to it, and on important things (as someone mentioned further up there) the pres is the dictator anyway. How is that democratic?

Waay more complicated than it needs to be. I don’t really ‘get’ why the layer of the college votes needs to be in there at all.

>>not understanding how it work

No one not understanding how it work not..

Americans, “often derided as a nation of idiots”, as Paul McGeough noted in the smh, have NFI.

:)

robadob said:

Obama is a Democrat.

do both party’s democrats and republicans have a leader of there party?

now congress has more republicans so there can stop any thing put forward.

dont think i like there way :(

I don’t think they have an actual leader leader. They’d each have a chairman of the party, who’s not really very high profile outside the party. They each have a leader in the senate and a leader in the house. Then one or the other has the President.