Very true. Whoever will be the winner now, he will have a hard time. I don't speak of a Pyrrhic victory, but it is rather close. The next American President will be "angepatzt", to use a typical Austrian term, which could be translated by "dirtied", in a sense like small children look after a meal, before they have learned to use a spoon. However, it is NOT an unfriendly term. You know what I mean...

What's the Austrian viewpoint on the U.S. election?

Bored... and some not quite understanding shaking of the head. Only very short news now, wait and see - but many caricatures, and now and then the question how the US probably had acted if such a chaos would have happened in a Third World Country. Would they have sent their fleet to save democracy? ;-)

Seriously, wouldn't it have been possible to try a second run of election, as their is a stale mate, obviously? Perhaps a little private tuition could help me to understand!

At least, we know the system works, however cumbersome.

It works??? In which regard?

If this was a third world country, Bill Clinton would have crowned himself King by now....

He seems to be remarkably restrained. One point for him!

Al Gore has continually talked about the "will of the people" but he overlooks the fact that in over 2400 counties in the U.S. George Bush prevailed, while Gore was ahead in only 600+ (and includes mostly large cities).

One hindrance of understanding is the complicated system of elections in USA.

In Austria, the simple majority of votes decides. And the counting of votes (Florida equals their number) can be done within a few hours. Therefore "the man on the street" stands perplexed.