Well who is it going to be? The smart money is on Obama. The big money has been on Romney – but then the Republicans have always had the deeper pockets.

Actually the obscene amounts both parties spend on campaigning is a trifle compared to the $5 trillion tax cuts Romney has promised to introduce. Where exactly he is going to get the money is not clear but it looks bad for Medicaid, the Obama health scheme for the poor.

If Medicaid went it would be tragic. It took a great deal of political courage to put it in place and it has been a life-saver for many. It is efficiently run by comparison with the other schemes and illustrates that central government can do health better than Republicans care to admit.

However it is the ridiculous parliamentary system whereby the House of Representatives (which has been Republican i.e. Romney) and the Senate (which has been Democratic i.e. Obama) have to be in sync in order to pass laws. What we saw over the latter half of Obama’s 4 years was the Republican majority in the House of Representatives thwarting the necessary changes to address the economy which had been agreed by the Senate, thrown out by the Representatives, mischievously creating a crisis that the Republicans thought would enable them to return to power.

Of course these things are never black and white!

Obama’s care for the poor has not extended to the most vulnerable, those still in the womb. The extension of the liberal abortion laws has resulted in an enormous slaughter of human life which is ongoing.

On foreign policy matters operating as a global policeman with an agenda to introduce the nations to democracy will never work. Democracy can only work where there is recognition of the sinfulness of man, an understanding of the triune God and a remedy of forgiveness rather than a culture of death. This is not to say democracy is Christian but it can only work and that imperfectly, in Christian countries or countries where there is a legacy of Christianity.

To try to kit out the Arab Spring countries with democracy is like trying to put a tuxedo on a hedgehog! It will not fit and you will get hurt in the process.

Laws can never introduce the self control required in democratic government. There has to be a change of heart such as conversion to Christ resulting in the recognition of a higher power which we are answerable to, and a means of co-existing peacefully with those who think differently to you. Out of these things (and much more) comes the caring for the poor in a free and equal society.

At the end of the day it is not who governs but how they govern that is the criteria they and we will be judged upon. What we believe influences our decisions. Election promises should flow from those beliefs. Listen to Jesus the only one who ever kept them fully. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” St Luke chapter 4 verse 18.