DONALD Trump has gotten away with blunder after blunder, yet people are still applauding him.

These were the damning words of Cathy Tobin from Bandon who cast her vote for Joe Biden this week with a cautious optimism.

The school administrator, who moved to the States in 1993 with her husband, Douglas native Tom, said she has already been disheartened by the show of support for Donald Trump ahead of election results.

"I wanted to see him and his ideology outright rejected and it hasn't been," the Orange County resident said. 

"We are clinging to optimism that Biden will pull this out of the bag. We can only hope that we are now on the path to a better place after all the ugliness of the last four years. Time and time again Donald Trump has proved who he really is. The killer for me is that we have seen him in action for four years. 

"The sheer votes he is getting is very disappointing. There are some rural states where you would expect Trump to come out the victor but I'm upset that it hasn't been a resounding repudiation. The fact is that this is still hanging in the balance."

She said that America needs a good man to lead the country on the right path.

"Biden has said repeatedly that he will be a president for all of America and that's what we need right now. We need a good man at the helm. With Donald Trump, we most certainly do not have a good man at the helm. He is not even willing to denounce white supremacy. 

"It's sometimes hard to believe that this is still happening in 2020 and there is a percentage of Americans to whom that's attractive. Having Biden as a president would be a strong step in the right direction."

The mother of three described the hopelessness that came with the last election.

"I am not feeling the depression or doom I felt the first time around. The difference between now and that terrible morning of November 4, 2016 is that I didn't wake up and immediately find out that Trump had won. 

"I can't describe how horrible that morning was. It was so hard to even get dressed and go to work. A sense of depression and loneliness descended on us. When I did manage to get to work people were hugging each other and crying. At least we are not having that morning."

Cathy described how difficult it would be to have to relive that morning.

"We still had to get up and get dressed knowing what we were facing into. That might sound dramatic but it really was that horrible."

She slammed Trump's management of the pandemic adding: "I'm not saying that people would not have died in the US if Trump hadn't been in power. 

"However, his mismanagement of Covid in America means there were a lot more deaths that didn't need to happen. The fact is that this is still hanging in the balance. I am disappointed that Trump's policies have not been more resolutely rejected by the American public. 

"He has shown America who he is but people have still voted. I remain optimistic about America. There is so much good here. 

"Nonetheless, I am still sad we didn't get a percentage which shows that America as a whole stands against everything Trump represents."

She said that Trump is not speaking for America but instead for his followers.

"Can you imagine having another four years of a president who really doesn't care about 60pc of the country? Trump only talks about his followers and red states. He didn't care about blue states in relation to the mitigation of Covid. This is not a theory. It has been clearly demonstrated that Trump doesn't speak for or to all of America. He only speaks to his own followers. He is the dying gasp of the top-down structure."

Ms Tobin said she feels the damage of the last few years will take time to undo "All that's good in America will come to fruition. Biden is a good man who has empathy for your average American. I really feel that he entered the race in response to Donald Trump's presidency. 

"If Biden gets the presidency we can start doing the work that needs to be done. To undo the damage of the last four years we are going to need a democratic senate as well as Joe Biden. He represents the more positive aspects of America and pushing back the hate."