Democracy - USA style

The United States of America has always considered itself a democracy. But is it, by definition?

Consider a sampling of definitions for democracy

Wikipedia: "Democracy- a form of government in which state-power is held by the majority of citizens within a country or a state."

Online dictionary:"Democracy- government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives."

Now look at the statistics related to the election of Obama (2008 US presidential election):

Total number of registered voters = 169 million:
86 million democrats
55 million republicans
28 million "others"

Total USA population in 2008 = 303,824,640 (July estimate)

Total number of votes cast = 131,257,328
= 77.67% of registered voters actually voted

Total number of votes Obama received = 69,456,897
= 41.10% of registered voters
= 52.92% of total number of votes cast
= 22.86% of total estimated USA popution

Forty-one percent is not a majority. It is quite clear that only a minority of all registered (a subset of eligible) voters in the USA chose Obama to the the president. On the other hand, one may argue that 52.92% of all the votes counted is what matters - all else are secondary.

I wonder what the rest of the world thinks of this form of democracy.