Introduction  7

PART ONE: LAW, HISTORY, AND POLITICS OF THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Robert Podolnjak, The Constitution, the Electoral College, and the American Concept of Democracy – a View from Europe  11
Jolanta Daszyńska, The Elections of the First Three American Presidents: How Did Americans Elect Washington, Adams and Jefferson?  31
Magdalena Paluszkiewicz-Misiaczek, White House Hostess, Pet Causes Campaigner, Convention Speaker – Evolution of Position and Role of American First Lady  47
Marco Morini, A Study on the Re-election Chances of American Presidents: Does the Unemployment Rate Matter?  65
Paweł Laidler, Conservative Crime Control v. Liberal Due Process and Presidential Elections  83
Magdalena Modrzejewska, Presidential Debate. Where Is the Question?  99

PART TWO: DOMESTIC FRONT
Donathan Brown, The Rhetorical Currency of Immigration Reform  117
Anna Bartnik, Hispanics in the 2012 Presidential Elections  129
Zinovia Lialiouti, Discursive Strategies in an Era of Economic Crisis: Barack Obama, the American Dream and the American Middle Class  143
Alix Meyer, The White House in 2013: Tax Shelter from the Storm?  163
Søren Christian Reimer, From the Political Wilderness to ‘Civil War’: The Republican Party during Obama’s First Term  183
Károly Pintér, God’s Chosen Candidate: Mitt Romney and the Role of Religion in the 2012 Presidential Campaign  203
Paulina Napierała, Barack Obama, Religion, and the Separation of Church and State  223
John Bloom, The Renewed Importance of Intelligent Design  249

PART THREE: MEDIA AND CULTURE IN AND ON CONTEMPORARY ELECTIONS AND POLITICS
István Szokonya, U.S. Elections (Web) 2.0 – Can Romney Outdo Obama in Social Media?  265
Anna Severse, The Synergy of Microtargeting and Social Media Unlocks the Code of the American Presidential Election 2012  273
Bożena Pękala, A Comparison of U.S. Presidential Candidates’ Media Image in Time and Newsweek  283
Maciej Turek, Paul Ryan and the Press  299
Patrick Sadjak, Indecision 2012: Cluster to the White House Redux – U.S. Presidential Election, Satire, and the New Political Media  315
Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel, Cowboys Go to Washington – Cowboy Culture in Presidential Politics  327

PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Spasimir Domaradzki, Piotr Józefczyk, The Obama Administration and Human Rights: Between International PR and the American Values 345
Alf Tomas Tønnessen, Mitt Romney’s and Paul Ryan’s Rhetoric of Anti-Europeanism and American Exceptionalism  363
Mateusz Bogdanowicz, To Conduct or Not to Conduct the World (Again): 2012 U.S. Presidential Candidates’ Dilemmas  377
Dagmara Suberlak, Europe in the Politics of Barack Obama’s Administration  391
Joost Baarssen, Europe Is Working in the United States: “Europe” and Anti-Europeanism in the 2012 Elections  405
Wojciech Michnik, The United States’ Foreign Policy under Barack Obama’s Administration: An Early Assessment 425

Notes about the Authors 435