In 2012, two different countries there were presidential elections for each country. In the United States President, elect Barrack Obama and Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney ran against each other the presidency of the United States of America. Across the Atlantic, President elect Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Holland faced off for the presidential title of their nation of France. The election in France took place on April 22, 2012 and the election in the United States took place November 6, 2012. Elections in France take place every 5 years while US Presidential elections take place every four years. Each candidate chooses a political party to represent, a candidate selected by the people of their respective countries to run against other each by representing a specific political party. There are different political parties that are represented in the US. There are two main presidential parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican
Party. In France to the governments that this recent election represent was the UMP (Union pour un Mouvement the Populaire) a conservative party “the right leaning party”. The other political party is the Socialist party, “The left leaning party.” Each representative chooses a Vice President or a Prime Minister. In both countries legislative elections (which in France follow in June) may not ratify the presidential vote and may thus bring divided governments. In the United States the presidential term last four years, and each president is to serve no more than two terms. The presidential term in France last five years and there is no restriction on how many terms a president can hold his or her office. There are similarities and differences in both countries; each candidate job is to convince the people of their countries that they are the best candidate to run the country politically, economically, and to represent the people in the most effectively. Barack Obama is the current president of the United States he is a representative of the Democratic Party. In November of 2008, Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. He was the first African American to become president and hold office in the United States. Barack Obama was born August 1, 1961 in Honolulu Hawaii. He was born to white American mother Anne Dunham and black Kenyan father Barack Obama Sr. Barack Obama parents divorced when he was young, his father returned to Kenya and his mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta. Barack lived with his mother for a while but he returned to Hawaii where his grandparents predominantly raised him. However, his grandparents made a modest living Barack was accepted to Hawaii’s most prestigious prep school, Punahou School. Barack Obama moved to New York where he was to attend Columbia University. He moved to Chicago where a community organizer for a small Chicago church- based group became. Obama helped south side resident’s deal with unemployment due to a series of plant closings in the Chicago area. Barack Obama attended Harvard Law School and worked for the Harvard Review, where he became first African American editor-n-chief of the Harvard Review. After Barack graduated from Harvard Law, he was offered a judicial clerkship, which he turned down, instead choosing to return to Chicago a practice civil-rights law. Barack taught civil law at University of Chicago Law School. Michelle Robinson was a fellow attorney that Obama met during an internship after Harvard Law. Michelle and Barack married in 1992 and had two daughters Malia, and Sasha. In 1996, Barack Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate where he served from 1997-2004, when he was elected as a democrat to the United States senate. Senator Obama served in the US senate from Jan. 2005 to 2008. He resigned his seat in the senate because he became the 44th president of the United States defeating republican Senator John McCain. Barack Obama won on the democratic ticket. He was