Romney not cut out for Canberra party - Sydney Morning Herald

The Barack Obama cutout proved popular at the US embassy party at the National Press Club. Photo: Graham Tidy

Mitt Romney did not receive much love today. The guests at the US embassy party at the National Press Club in Canberra did not elect him in their non-compulsory mock poll (Obama romped home with 85 votes to 19), and the Romney cardboard cut-out was decidedly unpopular too.

While the guests, who included embassy staff, diplomats, journalists, lobbyists, military attaches and assorted US election tragics, jumped at the chance to have their photograph taken with the Barack Obama cut-out, Romney was largely ignored.

His help-meet, the vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, was also overlooked.

The US ambassador, Jeffrey Bleich, arrives at the party. Photo: Graham Tidy

The guests were just there to enjoy the party – scoffing mini hot dogs, pizzas and American churros – but the host, the ambassador, Jeffrey Bleich, had more at stake.

"Unlike the people in this room, my job is on the line today," he told his guests.

Luckily, Bleich's boss and close friend won a second term, which means the ambassador will be able to see out his own.

"As I told the President, if he is re-elected, I love this job. If he wants me to do something else, obviously you do what your President wants you to do, but he'd have to pry me out of here first," Bleich said.

Earlier, the ambassador endorsed Australia's compulsory voting system.

"Americans take pride in the fact that we vote voluntarily, it's like giving blood. You're not required to do it but you do it even if its inconvenient ... because it's the responsibility of citizenship," he said.

"At the same time ... we have to spend money on getting people to come out and vote and that I think alters our politics, makes it more expensive, and I think it also alters people's sense of responsibility.

"I think Americans would benefit from thinking more seriously about the need for everyone to vote, however that's accomplished, and that's one idea that I think I will bring back [to the United States]."