@Xapi "There is always, in every country, a time between the election taking place and the actual transfer of the seat" yeah in most countries it's a day not 2 months, just seems strange thats all, o well each to their own

Well, here, in Argentina, it is two months, give or take.

It should be noted that in Parliamentary systems, were the President is not elected by direct or semi-direct vote, but by the vote of congressmen, this may be done differently.

It didn't use to happen till March 4th. Old Inauguration Day is the best excuse for a party.

@trim: "yeah in most countries it's a day not 2 months, just seems strange thats all, o well each to their own"

by "most", you just mean the UK, right? and you call American's arrogant?

@philcore - so much trolling...

no i meant most, just seems strange thats all that you lect someone and he has to wait to take office.

He needs to get everything set up first. Also he needs to be briefed on all the things that havent been made public for numerous reasons.

I understand why this may seem weird to some people. But I think it's entirely reasonable to have a somewhat long transition time. The US government is pretty huge, and there's a lot of work to be done to make sure everything is ready to go when he does take office.

I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that in an parliamentary system it's probably easier for a new PM to take over, as they're all members of parliament and have probably been a bit more involved in the day to day operations of the government already. But in our system the executive branch is a whole separate (huge) entity, so it makes sense to have some time for transition. He has to appoint A LOT of people, and make sure they have some idea what they're doing and how to do it. Also as has been pointed out there is a lot of information that needs to be passed off.

Honestly if he took over in a few days or even a few weeks, there'd be chaos, or at least a long period of inactivity while everyone figured out what the hell they were doing, what problems they had to deal with etc. I really can't emphasize how GIGANTIC the US Executive Branch is. This is not the sort of thing you can just take over in a couple of days, and have any hope of actually getting anything done.

see that makes sense thankyou DrOct for having the wit and intelligence to explain things properly rather than just telling me dates ir trolling

No problem.

Plus he has to get his innoculations against alien mind control worms and a briefing on Area 51 don't forget that

@stratagos - I assumed that went without saying!

When did they start putting presidents on the people's ballots, and why, and how, did they do so? I know that early on average people just voted for state legislators or something like that.

people vote for electors - but they don't have any idea who those electors are. They just know that they are voting for McCains electors or Obama's electors. Thus the president's name has always appeared on the ballot so that the people would know which candidate they were voting for.

I think they've done that since they actually started having the electors be popularly elected. There's nothing that says the state legislatures can't just appoint the electors. Some states did that till Jackson or so, I believe.

Not that it matters much but the first black President elect designation is sort of a stretch. The guy is mulatto. Oprah and Jesse need to take a 'lude the size of an Oreo cookie. Good for him(and the U.S.) in any event. I think that he was the best candidate.
I just find it amazing that everybody is calling the man black.

Mulatto's a slur. It's Portuguese for "little mule." Not a nice word.

I do always find it strange that black seems to be dominant when talking about mixed race people. He's just as white as he is black.

@ mapleleaf... I take it you're Canadian? It used to be said here that if you had 1/16 "negro" blood in you, you were.

The point is cultural American. We're fairly racist down here.

I'd still love him if he were another color. At this rate the man will be a saint by 65.

Lol, I once told an African American lady I wanted to be Barack Obama and that he was my idol... she told me to get some melatonin.

Is black a color or a culture?

Unfortunately, mapleleaf, race is often judged by appearances. Granted, as he is a public figure, people know his ethnicity...now at least. But for his life up to this point he was most certainly treated as a black man.

Furthermore, many mixed people tend to take on the culture of one of their roots more than the other, so a mixed individual may in fact identify (legitimately, I think) as black or not black at all, regardless of his or her genetic makeup.

maintgallant is also correct when he says that we're (unfortunately) fairly racist as a nation, on average.

@maintgallant - I assume you meant to write melanin (melatonin is a sleep hormone).

Actually, back when Obama started making some political hay, he was largely rejected by the African-American community as "not being black enough". It was not until Hilary played the race card that the African-American community started to get behind him.

When Oprah started having her multiple Obama-orgasms on her show, that was that, as they say.

Allow me to re-state that I do not care WHY the man was elected, I'm just happy that he was.

#Hillary#