Does Obama deserve to be re-elected?

[fordy]

Mr Khan said:

insomniac17 said:

gergroy said:

And yes, those voting 3rd party are wasting their vote. Voting for the losing guy with no chance is the equivalent of staying home and not voting. Personally, i most likely am staying home as I live in utah and the results of my state are already decided. If they didnt have the electoral college system i might be more inclined to vote. I dont know why they dont do popular vote...

You have a very bleak outlook on voting 3rd party. For me, it is a statement against something that I don't approve of. If I vote for Romney or Obama, I am saying that I approve of whichever one I pick. But I don't. Therefore, I won't vote for either one. Part of the reason why 3rd parties never do well is because everyone thinks that it's throwing away your vote. You should vote for who you think will do the best job, not just the lesser of two evils.

under the American system, it is throwing away your vote. If there are 5 candidates, with one getting 23%, three getting 20%, and one getting 17%, Mr. 23 gets all the marbles, and the votes of 77% of the population are rendered utterly meaningless. So it is natural that we try to accumulate as broad of political parties as possible, leading to our milquetoast Right-wing and Left-wing parties, because you need a candidate with as broad appeal as possible, for fear that the other guy is slightly more popular.

That being said, is there a reason why preferential voting is NOT being used? Is it because the major parties in power wont vote it in because it essentially gives minor parties more leverage?

It would reflect who voters want a lot more, because there would be no fear of voting for a minority and wasting your vote in the sense that your second preference (one of the major parties, perhaps) could need that vote.