President Obama's election campaign. Help . Trump and Sanders, your networks brought votes

Barack Obama, photo AFP

Barack Obama is the winner of the Democratic presidential race. This bright and extraordinary politician is relatively a short time managed to gain fame not only in America, but also abroad. Senator Joe Biden is fighting for the White House alongside Obama.

Obama was interested in social issues. After graduating from Columbia University, he worked in one of the church charity groups, helping residents of disadvantaged areas of the city. According to Obama, it was his experience in philanthropy that made him realize that changes in legislation and policy were needed to improve people's lives.

After graduating from law school Harvard University Obama began practicing law, mainly defending victims in court different types discrimination. Obama's political career began in the Illinois State Senate, where he represented the Democratic Party for eight years, from 1997 to 2004.

A black lawmaker from Illinois turned heads on July 29, 2004, with a memorable speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In it, in particular, he harshly criticized the war in Iraq. After this, Obama's ratings soared, and he was eventually elected to Congress as a senator from Illinois with 70 percent of the vote. His Republican challenger, Alan Keyes, could only get 27 percent. At the televised debates before the Senate elections, Obama showed himself to be an excellent speaker.

Since becoming a senator, Barack Obama has hired numerous highly qualified consultants on the types of issues that a freshman senator would typically have to deal with. This step allowed him to quickly get up to speed and understand large quantities topics

Obama has never been a hard-nosed politician. He has worked with Republicans on a number of issues, such as government transparency bills. In addition, together with Republican Senator from Indiana Richard Lugar, Obama visited Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The trip was dedicated to cooperation in the field of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But overall, Obama voted in line with the liberal Democratic Party line in the Senate. Special attention the black senator paid attention to development issues alternative sources energy.

Barack Obama participated in meetings of numerous committees and often made rationalization proposals. Soon there was little doubt that Obama would run for president. On February 10, 2007, at a rally in Springfield, Illinois, Obama officially announced his entry into the presidential race. In a long and bitter struggle, he defeated his main rival Hillary Clinton.

Obama took his campaign very seriously. He began active campaigning on the Internet, enlisted the support of Hollywood stars and gained popularity among the American press. Skeptics believed that the inexperienced Obama had no chance against a seasoned rival, but on June 7, the former first lady had to withdraw from the race, and on August 28, the Democratic National Convention officially approved the black senator as the party candidate.

According to some reports, Obama spent significantly more money on his election campaign than his competitors. Rumors appeared in the press that Obama received part of the funds through front companies of Chicago developer Anthony Rezko, who was put on trial for fraud, extortion and money laundering. Obama publicly apologized and promised to return all money received from the alleged fraudster.

Barack Obama made one of the key points of his election program the question of reviving the “American Dream.” He often spoke about the plight of many Americans, about the fact that 47 million US citizens cannot pay for health insurance and cannot provide their children with an education. The "American Dream" in Obama's understanding is the opportunity to own a home, receive medical care and provide children with an education. In his opinion, with the tax policy pursued by the Bush administration, these simple desires are becoming unattainable, the gap between rich and poor is growing, middle class- the basis of society - lives worse and worse.

To revive the "American Dream" that the ancestors of today's US residents suffered, Obama intends to support the middle class and reduce the gap between rich and poor. He is going to make education more affordable for most Americans and provide housing for his fellow citizens. In addition, Obama plans to reduce the tax rate for working families.

Obama often criticized the foreign policies of the George W. Bush administration and argued that they led the United States to lose its leading position in the world. Therefore, Obama's other key thesis is the return of America to the status of a world leader.

He believes that the decision to invade Iraq was wrong from the very beginning. If he wins the election, Obama promised to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2009. He insisted that only this measure would help America begin a constructive dialogue with Iraqi leaders and find a compromise solution to the Middle East problem. In his opinion, only a few American units should remain in Iraq, and their powers should not be as broad as Hillary Clinton proposed.

Bush supporters both in the United States and abroad actively criticized Obama's position. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who approved of the current American president's policies, said that Obama's statements played into the hands of terrorists.

Speaking about Iraq, Barack Obama did not hold back his emotions. However, sometimes he made too rash statements. Criticizing Bush's handling of the Iraq War at a rally in Iowa, Obama said the lives of American troops killed in Iraq were "wasted." After this, Obama had to apologize more than once for his words.

As one of the priority areas in international politics Obama also emphasizes nuclear disarmament. He promises to build new world, free from nuclear threat.

Obama advocates limiting illegal immigration into the United States, but emphasizes that mass deportations of illegal immigrants are not the answer. In the Senate, Obama took an active role in developing immigration reform, which included additional funding for the Border Patrol and the CIA so that their agents could better identify and apprehend illegal immigrants. At the same time, the reform assumed that illegal immigrants already living in the United States would have a chance to remain in the country after they paid a fine and paid taxes and passed a knowledge exam in English and confirm that they have not committed any crimes. However, Obama's amendments to the reform specified that employers must first offer jobs to American citizens and must verify the legal status of foreign workers.

Obama rarely touches on race in his remarks. And many analysts believe that this is the right move. Speculation on the suffering of oppressed African Americans does not generate support among the population, especially among blacks. In addition, Obama's reputation among the black population of the United States was somewhat "tarnished" after reports appeared in the press about Obama's ancestors being slave owners.

Obama has repeatedly expressed his concern about the growing incidence of AIDS both in the United States and in developing countries. He believes that the state should establish a dialogue with pharmaceutical companies, pushing for lower prices for antiretroviral drugs. In addition, Obama advocates for the right of women to decide for themselves whether to keep their child or get rid of it.

Obama rarely mentions the future US relationship with Russia in his campaign speeches. He believes that Russia is “neither an enemy nor a close ally of the United States,” but America should not “should shy away from seeking greater democracy, transparency and accountability from Russia.” However, Obama mostly remembers Russia in the context of nuclear disarmament. Both the United States and Russia must reduce their military arsenals and, ideally, completely destroy them, he believes.

In the Senate, Barack Obama serves on the Committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He is also a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Veterans Affairs. In 2005 and 2006, Obama participated in meetings of the Security Committee. environment and the Public Works Committee (this department is responsible for distributing funds for the construction and maintenance of high-speed highways).

Barack Obama is married and has two daughters, Malia and Sasha. His wife, Michelle Robinson Obama, is a lawyer. Barack Obama released two books that became bestsellers. The audio version of the first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, won a Grammy in 2006, a prestigious award from the Recording Academy of America.

Taking part in a poll that the Associated Press conducted among presidential candidates, Obama indicated that if he had not chosen politics, he would definitely have become an architect.

At the forefront of political and propaganda use social media The USA was coming - the same country where they were born.

The 2008 election campaign turned out to be a turning point in this regard. According to observers, Obama's victory was largely predetermined by his bet on new media. The premise behind this strategy was the campaign's conclusion that the majority of voters spent significant time online. Therefore, the presence on the Internet was the best way involve his regulars in the campaign and secure their support.

The main goals of the Internet campaign were identified as follows: achieving a dominant Internet presence, organizing effective fundraising, building communication with voters based on digital technologies. To achieve them, the entire range of electronic communications from YouTube and email to blogs and Facebook. Final results exceeded the most optimistic forecasts.

13 million Americans signed up for campaign emails, donations were collected from almost 4 million people (total online fundraising for the primaries alone amounted to $200 million), Facebook A virtual club of Obama fans with 3.2 million users was organized.

Social media was used by Obama volunteers for internal communications and as a major propaganda weapon against the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Thanks to social networks, Obama's communication with voters key issues was built directly. did not include the Internet in the list of many prohibitions and restrictions with the only exception: if it is not paid advertising placed on other people's websites.

In practice, the lack of legislative regulation meant that any user could engage in a variety of Internet activities in support of a particular candidate: create and maintain a website, write blogs, send out emails and post the video on YouTube.

In the 2012 presidential campaign, social media continued to be an important propaganda tool for Obama. Since this time the emphasis was on uniting Americans from below, avoiding television advertising and lavish events was a conscious choice. The discussion deliberately shifted to social media, workplaces and families. It is noteworthy and important that the founder came out in support of Obama Facebook Mark Zuckerberg.

The president's website barackobama.com played an important role in the election campaign, transformed into an interactive blog that described current events related to official and unofficial events with the participation of the president. On YouTube video hosting e Video messages were posted in which Obama talked about current plans. The video service launched a special YouTube channel e Election s Hub, where they covered key points campaigns, and debates between rivals.

On the day the 2012 election campaign was officially announced, the Obama campaign sent out emails to nearly 13 million of its supporters announcing the start of the race for a second term. As in the 2008 campaign, social media served as the main platform for the exchange of news and opinions during the election.

On the eve of the elections Facebook presented interactive map voting, which allowed you to see how many people shared the message “I went to the 2012 elections” with their friends. Besides, Facebook together with CNN launched the platform Election Insights, where you could see in real time how many users were talking about incumbent President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney, as well as their vice presidential candidates.

An important difference between this election campaign and the previous one was Obama's use of social network Google+ and microblogging services Twitter. Besides that Twitter served as an excellent platform for discussion, with its help it was possible to make assumptions about the outcome of the elections. English newspaper The Guardian provided a visual presentation of a study based on the frequency of candidate mentions in user tweets. Obama's tweet about his victory in the presidential election, accompanied by a photo of the president hugging his wife, became the most quoted in the service's history.

The use of photo services has also become a new step Instagram, Flickr And Pinterest, practically not involved in the last election campaign. Although Instagram in the election campaign was assigned a much more modest role than Facebook And Twitter, this platform turned out to be extremely popular on voting day. In particular, on November 6 at Instagram more than 680 thousand photos with the hashtag appeared #vote (#vote). Number of photos with hashtag #election or variations on the theme of this word equaled 250 thousand. Number of photos with hashtag #obama (#Obama) was 1.27 million, while images tagged #romney (#romney)- only 260-odd thousand. In analog Instagram– social network Pinterest- Obama's position was also much stronger than Romney's.

In addition to social media accounts, both candidates have launched apps for iPhone and smartphones with Google Android , which gave their supporters the opportunity to learn the latest news about party activity and the success of the election campaign.

However, according to Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, despite all the emails and outreach Facebook And Twitter, the most effective tool turned out to be conversations between volunteers and potential voters and personal contacts . At the same time, an application was specially developed that allowed volunteers to receive the latest information about the campaign at any time. That is, there was an integration of classical and new methods of agitation.

Thanks to a well-thought-out promotion strategy, Barack Obama's 2012 election campaign set a record for the amount of funds raised. His campaign managed to raise almost $690 million, of which $504 million was received online, and the total number of donors was almost 4.5 million.

Obama's election campaigns, especially the last one, are important not only for demonstrating capabilities digital channels(and almost all that existed at that moment were involved), but also by the integration of traditional and new media into a single propaganda effort, which significantly increased its power.

The success of Donald Trump, who managed to beat all his competitors in the internal party race, haunts analysts. It's no joke - the eccentric billionaire, violating every conceivable taboo of American political culture, left behind the promising Marco Rubio, the representative of the presidential clan Jeb Bush, and the stern Ted Cruz! No less surprising is the fact that socialist Bernie Sanders, whom few took seriously a year ago, has become a real competitor to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic camp. Experts will have to figure out for a long time how two politicians who were considered outsiders managed to shame those who did not believe in them. But we can already say that new technologies and social networks helped them in this.

The 2016 American presidential campaign marked a new stage in understanding how communication technologies may be used for political purposes. Moreover, the person who took a step forward in this field was a contender who no longer has a serious chance of being nominated as a candidate from the Democratic Party - 74-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders. Thanks to his innovative approach to the power of the Internet, the politician still poses a much greater threat than expected to Hillary Clinton's nomination, and it is to this approach that he owes most of his victories.

According to observers, Sanders has achieved something that no one else in American (and world) politics has ever achieved, including even Barack Obama, recognized as almost a pioneer of digital technologies following the results of the 2008 and 2012 campaigns. The point is that the leftist senator turned his Internet fans into an army of volunteers, ready to knock on all doors and spend hours on the phone canvassing voters. From the inert mass, an advanced team was formed, numbering about 50 thousand people and capable of performing any work: from compiling telephone archives to organizing events high level as part of the election campaign. They do work that would normally be outsourced to paid staff with more energy and efficiency.

The first exit of Internet activists from virtual world Howard Dean's campaign in 2003 is considered real. It organized about 800 events (many of them in bars and cafes), for which Dean's supporters were mobilized through the Meetup portal. These activists were also donors Money(Dean is the first candidate who managed to quickly raise an impressive amount through the Internet) and the organizers of the meetings. Zach Exley, an online activist specialist who worked on Dean's campaign, and a number of experts who once created Obama's digital strategy, managed to achieve even more impressive results on the Sanders team.

The secret of the rebel senator’s success is the so-called “barnstorms”, official organizational events held at any available venue (conference hall, church, library, theater) after sending invitation emails to the candidate’s supporters located within a 50-kilometer radius. It is people who have never been party activists who become the recruiting base and future organizational leaders. Those who come are asked who wants to do telephone campaigning. Volunteers who volunteer are given a calendar with instructions and asked to circle dates when they could assemble local telephone canvassing teams at their home or a nearby library. This is how an online map of events is formed. With free or very low-cost basic apps like Hustle and Slack, volunteers share experiences, coordinate their efforts, and send text messages in search of new activists for their teams.

Something similar happened in both Obama campaigns. Back in 2008, its experts worked with volunteers emerging as leaders of activist teams in their neighborhood or city in states where campaigns lacked campaign resources. If you look at how Obama mobilized activists, we can say that Sanders adopted many of his ideas. Obama had Dashboard, a web-based app for volunteers who downloaded it onto their smartphones and tablets and then had access to the locations of other activists, campaign zones and points where their help was needed. Obama's team pioneered a web-based telephone canvassing program that allowed activists to stay in their own homes rather than having to travel to a campaign office to access telephone database. It was enough to simply subscribe to the program on the Internet, get a list of numbers, names of people, instructions and start calling. At the same time, each activist was selected to have an audience that corresponded to his profile and life experience. This increased the effectiveness of the campaign.

The second element of Sanders’ strategy, like Dean’s and Obama’s once, is to attract small but numerous online donors. Thus, in the first four days of the campaign, they managed to collect three million dollars as a result of 75 thousand contributions (each averaged $43). Back in December, Sanders broke Obama's "interim" record for the number of subsidies - more than 2.3 million, while Obama, by December 31, 2011, stopped at a figure slightly exceeding 2.2 million. Subsequently, many online donations through the BernieSanders website were around $25. By comparison, 80 percent of Clinton donors give more than $200.

Hillary, by the way, also learned from Obama. But its strategy was not aimed at creating real local leaders. Hillary relied on a hierarchical structure that did not allow all projects to pass. This stifled the creative impulses of those who were not ready to make their way through bureaucratic thorns, but simply wanted to realize their talents. As a result, these people went to Sanders. That is why many geniuses of Silicon Valley, who are not his supporters and do not even have the right to vote in the United States, allowed their fruits - various Internet applications - to ripen in the field of the left democrat. For example, a Filipino immigrant created a map of all Sanders campaign events. It was then added to the candidate's website as an official one.

Sanders Campaign Symbols Vector further development political technologies. Digital advertising spending is projected to reach a billion dollars during the current US election campaign. At the end of the 2008 campaign, this figure did not exceed $22.25 million. What radio was for Roosevelt and television for Kennedy, social networks and web applications have become for American politics of our time. An era is coming when the winner of an election can be predicted by the number of followers on social networks. In the previous campaign, at least, everything was exactly like that. At the time of the vote, Obama had 32 million followers on Facebook, 21 million on Twitter and almost 260 thousand views on YouTube. Mitt Romney has 12 million, 1.7 million and almost 30 thousand, respectively.

Republicans, who traditionally rely on television advertising, are beginning to realize that this tool is becoming a thing of the past. But the party’s mentality is difficult to change. Perhaps this is why the skilled social media user Donald Trump beat out his competitors in the nomination. Surprisingly, on social networks he was ahead of both Sanders and Clinton in terms of the size and activity of his audience - that is, in the number of likes, comments, replies, reposts and mentions. Trump has 7.3 million followers on Facebook, 7.9 million on Twitter and another 1.5 million on Instagram. Sanders has 4.1 million followers on Facebook, 2.1 million on Twitter, and 1.3 million on Instagram. Clinton has 3.4 million followers on Facebook, 6.1 million on Twitter and 1.1 million on Instagram.

Some of Trump's followers are people who followed him "for fun" or to be able to leave critical comments. But the main part are loyal fans and those who are sincerely interested in his program. Sanders' social media audience is also loyal and motivated. But Clinton cannot boast of the same. A significant part of her friends are those who subscribed to Hillary’s accounts back in the years when she was Secretary of State.

A characteristic detail: in general, Republicans, being conservatives, pay less attention to the Internet than Democrats. Trump did not neglect social networks, which became one of the components of his success.

However, the importance of revolutionary digital technologies should not be overestimated. They do not guarantee a victory or even a nomination (as was the case with Dean). No matter how a candidate builds his communication with the electorate, traditional political factors are primarily responsible for his success. The propaganda potential of both Internet technologies and any other communication platforms is limited by the sympathies of the voter and the establishment, determined by the election program and the share of populism invested in it. But the more effectively and efficiently they are used digital technologies candidates, the further other communication platforms will fade into the background.

The US presidential elections will take place on November 6. The ratings of both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are almost equal, so the outcome of the confrontation remains unknown until the very last moment. Business Insider has compiled 16 key campaign promises of the Democratic candidate.

1. Industrial jobs

Under his plan, Obama promises growth in the manufacturing sector over the next four years and 1 million additional jobs in this industry by 2016. In addition, Obama is going to lower the corporate tax, which is currently 35%. For domestic producers – by a quarter, that is, up to 26.25%.

2. Cancellation of tax benefits for outsourcing companies

Companies now receive a tax deduction on a portion of the value of exports through overseas operations. That is, American companies take their business abroad and then return to the United States under a different name, receiving tax benefits as foreign investors. Obama wants to end this. The new tax will be 20% of the cost of moving a business back to the US.

3. New principles of trade with China

Obama devoted the third point of his plan to the creation of new principles developed exclusively for trade with China. The plan will be finalized by 2016. According to the document, the president is already actively suing China due to the fact that the Celestial Empire is violating fair trade rules. During his presidency, Obama sued China more than during George W. Bush's 8 years in the White House. Although the Republican had more success: All US lawsuits against China were won.

4. 2 million new workers through college-company collaboration

One of Obama's key points is to improve the country's economic situation through the establishment of cooperation between colleges and companies where students could intern and work.

The president wants to create a network of "innovation institutes" where businesses and research universities collaborate to develop new projects. An example is the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, where industry and academia collaborated under the leadership of the University of California to create the atomic bomb.

6. Expansion of areas for the development of energy resources

Obama has approved a number of federal lands for oil, coal and mineral extraction. In addition, conditions for exploration of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic will be facilitated. Thus, Obama plans to create an additional 600 thousand jobs.

7. Investing in domestic energy

Obama plans to invest public resources in alternative energy, including wind, solar, clean coal, nuclear and biofuels. According to Obama, this will make the economy energy efficient.

8. Double the number of energy-efficient cars by 2025.

Under this plan, the number of "fuel-efficient" cars and trucks will double over the next 13 years. This in turn will sharply reduce the amount of oil the US imports.

9. Invest in high-tech batteries

Under the plan, Obama wants to urge Congress to make America a leading producer of high-tech batteries that can be used in both military and civilian vehicles. To do this, Obama wants to persuade Congress to extend tax breaks for the production of alternative energy.

Transition utility companies to use at least 80% clean energy by 2035. Obama believes this will help improve access to alternative energy and make it cheaper for American businesses.

11. Cut taxes for companies that hire employees

Obama believes that it is necessary to give tax breaks to businesses that hire employees or raise their wages.

12. Maintaining Bush tax breaks

Obama promises to extend Bush-era tax cuts for middle-class families. These are considered to be those who earn from $250 thousand to $1 million.

The Affordable Care Act includes tax breaks for small businesses that offer health insurance to employees. Businesses will be offered reduced taxes when purchasing insurance in bulk.

14. Introduction of the "Buffett Rule"

“Know for sure whether millionaires pay less in taxes than members of the American middle class” - the philosophy of the “Buffett Rule”. Under this idea, the tax rate for people whose income exceeds $1 million per year would reach 30%.

15. Instead of wars - bridges and roads

Obama wants to use the money saved from withdrawing US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to improve roads, build bridges, airports and other infrastructure projects. In addition, the money can be used to pay off the budget deficit.

16. Obama opposes Social Security privatization

The presidential candidate will prevent the commercialization of Social Security and will extend Medicare and Social Security without cutting guaranteed benefits to people enrolled in the programs.

The election campaign of US President Barack Obama launched on April 4, 2012 with the video “It Starts with Us.” “Today we submitted documents to begin the 2012 campaign. Say that you are with us,” the video says.

The following resources were used in the current campaign:

1. Official page Obama on the White House website - www.whitehouse.gov There is an official website of the White House, which is one of the informative tools for visitors, both the USA and the whole world. The White House website is differentiated by various categories of government institutions.

The US President's blog plays an important role in the election campaign. This blog continues to function on the White House website. Also widely used news feed, which describes current events related to official and unofficial events involving the President.

Barack Obama pays special attention to weekly video addresses. In his video addresses, the president talks about current plans and events. For example, his last video message, made on November 24, 2011, was dedicated to congratulating US citizens on Thanksgiving Day.

2. Sites of Barack Obama supporters.

Websites of supporters of the US President continue to function. There are many English-language websites of supporters of the current US President. These sites provide a lot of information about life, work, career, family, life views, opinions and other points characterizing Barack Obama as a worthy candidate for President in 2012. Supporters of Barack Obama are so determined in their actions that they create encyclopedic resources like Obamapedia.

3. Official website of Barack Obama's election campaign

During the election campaign, Barack Obama's special website will be used, which was created to centralize information flows and maintaining the interactive nature of the election race.

4. Attracting volunteers

Barack Obama actively uses this tool. The specially created website for the 2012 election campaign has a special section regarding volunteers. Attracting volunteers is an important component in the current campaign, since the experience of the previous stage has proven the effectiveness of this tool.

5. Supporter website

IN this moment The website of Barack Obama's supporters is not functioning. But it is worth noting that the official election website has a section dedicated to women. IN this section, in addition to current news, there is a block called “Deeds accomplished by the President in favor of women”: the US Jobs and Women's Act, women's health and medicine issues, equal rights.

6. Email surveys

On the day of the official announcement of the 2012 election campaign, Barack Obama's campaign sent out emails to his supporters, in which he also announced the start of the race for a second term. The letters, which were signed simply “Barack,” reached 13 million Americans.

Obama officially confirms his participation in 16 different Internet services (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, etc.). Every day news is updated, the actions of the President of the United States are described, various kinds of video materials are uploaded and discussions are actively held open topics in social networks.

Barack Obama's Twitter microblog is one of the most popular in the world: Obama has more than four million subscribers as of December 1, 2011. If we compare previous years, the @barackobama profile had more than 129 thousand followers during the elections, and in 2010 - over 2.5 million subscribers.

On the eve of the presidential election, US leader Barack Obama created a page on the social network Google+.

8. Use of music and video

After winning the 2008 election, US President-elect Barack Obama announced that during his reign he was going to publish weekly video messages to the nation on YouTube. These video messages will be a significant addition to the radio messages that have become a tradition for previous administrations. In addition to the YouTube service itself, Obama's addresses will be published in the form of videos and audio clips on a special website Change.Gov.

9. Celebrity endorsements

Stars of show business, cinema, culture and art also show their support for the current President of the United States. For example, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and the founder Facebook Mark Zuckerberg.

10. Use of photo resources

Photo reports are actively used on the popular website Flickr, where official and unofficial photos of Barack Obama and his headquarters are published. As of December 1 of this year, this site had already collected 5 groups of photo reports dedicated to Barack Obama.

11. Sale of paraphernalia

This technology is one of the most important for Barack Obama's election campaign. Barack Obama supporters can purchase a variety of souvenirs and gifts on the official 2012 election website. Buyers are provided with various items, accessories, symbols, stickers, brooches, bags, items, packages and much more. Looking at the range of products, it is clear that the products released for the 2012 elections are richer and more varied.

12. Raising funds for the election campaign

As announced, Barack Obama plans to spend at least $1 billion on his campaign. As of April to November 3, 2011, Barack Obama had already raised $88 million for his election campaign. Barack Obama named the 244 most generous donors, each of whom donated more than $50,000 to his election campaign. Among the most generous donors are lawyers, general directors large enterprises, famous politicians, cultural figures.

13. Making a coffee batch

In the United States, the Coffee Party was created in 2010, which is an alternative to the previously created Tea Party, which supports the Republicans. Unlike its opponents, who are in strict opposition to Barack Obama, the Coffee Party calls for looking for new forms of dialogue between government and society.

This party holds various actions and events throughout the country. The launch event “National Coffee Party Day” took place in 300 US cities, where activists of the new movement and everyone who wanted to join them met over a cup of coffee.

On May 15, 2012, the PP-Online company compiled a list of those who the current US President can count on in the November 2012 elections:

1. Gays On ABC TV, Barack Obama said that, in his opinion, same-sex marriage should be allowed in the United States. In mid-June 2012, Same-Sex Love Day was held across America, and at the end of June, the Pentagon held the first event in the history of this harsh department in honor of homosexual military personnel, where Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made appearances.

2. Women

The Women for Obama association is again ready to support its candidate. The president was able to earn such loyalty thanks to his plan to support working women, as well as thanks to Michelle Obama's public activities.

According to the American Jewish Committee, 61% of US Jews are ready to vote for the current president of the country. Only 28% will support his opponent Mitt Romney. This is because most Jews are satisfied with Obama's policies towards Israel, the "Iranian threat" and his work on homeland security. Moreover, Obama has repeatedly spoken about the importance of maintaining strong US-Israeli relations.

4. Students

Barack Obama considers education to be a national priority and during all 4 years of his rule, he dealt with various issues in the field of education. Obama's main contribution to education is doubling investments in scholarships and financial aid for students, which made college education more affordable for low-income citizens.

Student loan reform is particularly popular: starting in 2014, federal college students will pay just 10% of their income toward student loans. In addition, if a young man regularly repaid his loan, then 20 years after graduating from college, the loan will be forgiven completely (for teachers, doctors and military personnel - after 10 years).

5. Trade unions

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are grateful to Obama for fighting to save educators' jobs across the country. The American Federation of Labor, the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Trades, and the Transport Workers Union of America have expressed their support for the current president. Barack Obama, as a supporter of Wall Street reform, is ready to support the Service Employees International Union.

6. Latin Americans

There are now about 50 million Hispanic Americans who form a strong base of support for the current US President. Hispanics are pleased that Obama is working to restore economic security for newcomers, as well as work on health care and education.

7. Environmentalists

Environment America, the Sierra Club and Clean Water said they would support the incumbent. Barack Obama is actively involved in environmental protection programs. On his initiative, new cost-effective technologies for using coal are being developed and implemented in the United States. Obama also entered into an agreement with automakers that increases the fuel efficiency of passenger cars produced in the United States.

8. Baptists and atheists

The religious factor will play a significant role in the presidential election race. Despite the fact that Obama cooperates with religious communities, non-religious citizens usually give preference to Democrats: according to public opinion polls, 61% of them are going to vote for Barack Obama. Also ready to support Obama is the Minister of the Baptist Church, civil activist Al Sharpton, who is considered Obama's unofficial adviser on civil law issues.

9. African Americans

February 2012 was designated African American History Month. That same month, the Blacks for Obama campaign launched: “Obama fought for our community's jobs, restored the shared values ​​of African Americans, and helped us make real progress. If we lose the 2012 election, many may think that everything we have achieved since 2008 was an accident, we must not let that happen,” says movement co-founder Mark Crane.

“This is my last election. After them, I will be able to be more flexible,” Obama said. Dmitry Medvedev promised to convey this information to Vladimir Putin. Due to technical problems, this conversation behind closed doors was leaked to the press. Many people started talking about the unspoken agreements between Obama and Putin.

Based on materials from the Russian Central Election Commission

All information about the US elections is on air and on the Voice of Russia website