I'm just going to answer some of these as best I can, though I know others have answered some, and I may be repeating information.
- I feel like this campaign has been going for fucking ever. Why the FUCK is an election that won't take place until November starting like 18+ months out. What the fuck. (And side Q, how the fuck can people expect Obama to get shit done/be good when this fucking circus is going on.)
It starts earlier and earlier all the time. One major reason for this is the 24-hour news cycle, and its connection to getting names and faces out there.
If Obama were eligible to run again, it would absolutely impact his efficiency as president.
He's not, so this has no impact on him, and it seems like he's getting more done now than ever.
- Are the Democrats in a better place than the Republicans? (kinda hard question to answer given everyone will be biased.) Like the Republican race is 10000000x more interesting and entertaining than the Democratic race, but is that a good thing for the Dems? That it's between two of them instead of five or seven or ten like the GOP?
This doesn't really have a good answer, as it's opinion based.
- What is the difference between the last 12 months and today? Why was today so special?
This has been answered pretty sufficiently, but yeah, basically, all of the year before yesterday was conjecture. Today was the first piece of REAL impact voting.
- On that note, why is it that your system only allows two terms of government? If one president does a real fucking good job (not saying that's Obama, just being hypothetical) wouldn't it suck to replace him/her with someone less good because you
have to?
Just look at our current congress to understand why term limitations are meaningful.
And, finally,
- What happens from now until election day?[/QUOTE]
Oh, cobl4, I just realised I can answer another of your questions, and a non american to boot. Two term limit - happened because of Roosevelt. He was in office for a whopping 13 years, truncated by ill health and death. His Democratic coalition controlled government for a good deal longer. I guess there was a desire to not lock in that precedent, or whatever (although what they never tell you is, it's consecutive terms. If he was silly enough, Bill Clinton could legally run for president now.)
Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt, for trying.
the term limits you're talking about is just presidential. there's term limits on other government positions too but yeah. basically fdr got elected FOUR TIMES and after he died in office, they passed legislation to enact term limits, i think it goes back to washington, our first president. he served two terms and didn't run for a third so it's very important™. but i'd rather have sanders anyway, and term limits helped ensure people like reagan and dubya got out so it's not always a bad thing.
Jefferson was more vocal than Washington about term limits, but the precedent was set by Washington.