THE GUARDIAN: The US president may not be smelling of quite so many roses these days, but the Republican opposition is so flawed and divided, he's odds-on to get a second term
This will be a year of elections, with presidential ballots in Russia, France and the US, along with an imminent change at the top in China. While a coronation for Vladimir Putin and the possibility of a run-off betweenNicolas Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen is hardly a prospect to savour, the US contest could be a rare source of political good cheer in 2012.
On paper it should be anything but. Barack Obama has disappointed those who had such high hopes back in 2008. The US economy has limped under him and he has proved a more hesitant figure than he promised. By rights, he should be vulnerable in November.
And yet few would bet against him winning a second term – becoming, incredibly, only the eighth Democrat in US history to achieve such a feat. … » | Jonathan Freedland | Friday, January 21, 2012
