I typo'ed. It should read UNemployment as high employment would surely be a good thing, haha. Interesting point you raise about the state of worldwide politics though, there's a lot of names and no faces. Even my PM back home is a bit of a joke, especially on a statesmanlike level.

So it is literally boiling down to a debate of the lesser of two evils then? I mean Obama isn't a very liberal Democrat but from what I could grasp he basically ran unopposed through the 2012 primaries. Surely that would dictate confidence in his leadership in at least the party level, if not the entirety? And as far as it being a second term, no-one wants to suffer the ignominy of a single term. It's a devastating blow to your legacy. Makes you wonder how George Bush Sr. felt when his son was re-elected but he wasn't. (Well proud of course, but you see what I'm getting at.)