Washington, Nov. 1: US voters demoralised by a faltering economy look certain to hand Republicans a mid-term elections triumph on Tuesday after souring on President, Mr Barack Obama’s Democrats just two years into his crusade for change.
Polls show Republicans set to win the House of Representatives and slice into the Democratic majority in the Senate, dividing power in Washington and forging a polarised prelude to Mr Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.
Republicans, electrified by the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, vow to reverse Mr Obama’s sweeping health reforms and promise a budget crunch and tax cuts which they claim will cut the deficit and ignite growth.
The election, for all 435 House seats and 37 in the Senate, comes as the euphoric hope Mr Obama stirred in 2008 seems an age away and with America’s trademark brash optimism drained by a narrative of national decline.
“We’ve tried it President Obama’s way. We’ve tried it Washington’s way. It hasn’t worked. It’s time to put the people back in charge,” Mr John Boehner, the likely Republican House speaker, said on Saturday.
Though Republican Mr George W. Bush was in the White House when the economy melted down in 2008, Mr Boehner blames Mr Obama for unemployment stubbornly pegged at 9.6 percent due to a sluggish recovery.
But Mr Obama reminds voters of Mr Bush’s culpability for driving the US economy into a “ditch,” claims credit for staving off a second Great Depression and says his policies have put America back on the road to prosperity.
He also charges Republicans would hand power back to predatory health insurance companies and credit card and finance barons by repealing healthcare and Wall Street reforms that add up to an already full presidential legacy.
Meanwhile. Republican Nikki Haley, born Nimrata (Nikki) Randhawa to Sikh immigrant parents from Amritsar, is favoured to win the governor’s race of South Carolina.
She is widely expected to defeat Democratic nominee, state Senator Vince Sheheen. If she wins, she’ll be America’s second Indian-American governor after the Louisiana Governor Mr Bobby Jindal, also a Republican who became the first with his election three years ago.