On one hand, the election season of 2012 should make America proud.

The peaceful passage of power, the right of each citizen to have their voice heard, these are all things that we get to show the rest of the world, and we should be proud of them.

But, on the other hand, the rest of the world also sees our already perceived loud, greedy and divisive reputation truly earned for several months on end.

The money these candidates spend makes us sick. Think about all the good that could be done with the billions of dollars spent on campaign ads that typically do nothing but further the divide between our country’s parties with negative, half-true dreck.

The politicians aren’t the only ones who embarrass this country every four years. We’re not sure what it is, but these elections seem to bring out the worst in people. Americans seem incapable of accepting people who think differently than themselves.

They also seem to have no interest in educating themselves to a satisfactory degree on most of the issues or candidates.

Barack Obama was not born in Kenya. He is not a Muslim. He is not a terrorist. Mitt Romney would not have reinstituted slavery. He would not have taken anyone’s financial aid away.

That’s another thing. The way this has become about race baffles us. How many tweets were there about “Glad to have a black man in office?” How many people tried to be clever about America “going black?”  Imagine the reaction had Romney won and someone had the “courage” to express elation at having a white man get elected?

It is a legitimate concern for us to have had the rest of the world watch the USA so closely and consider what they saw.

At this point, it’s time the country realizes that its leader has been chosen. It is our duty and our responsibility to support him.