Finally, my wife blurted out "I'm an independent." This happened while watching a political talk-show. With that remark, my wife has become the bellwether for the political mood in the Summer of 2012.
Fox News poll on August 5-7, 2012 found people comfortable with Romney as president in the 20 percent range and Obama in the 40 percent range, the poll numbers more or less track the numbers from other polls. This means that President Obama is viewed more favorably than Romney, but the support is not very enthusiastic for both candidates. Thus, the prevalence of "I'm an independent." A poll by NBC/ Wall St. J.
www.en.wikipedia.org
In July among the registered voters showed that 49 percent for Obama, 43 percent for Romney, and 8 percent for neither. The take from this poll is that a lot of people have already made up their mind, and the undecided segment is mostly because neither of them are satisfactory.
Mitt Romney is considered to be one of the worst presidential candidates in recent history by many political analysts, even some from the right. That is the biggest reason why this cycle of the presidential campaigning is lackluster, while the fact that we are going through the worst economic crisis, the great recession, since the Great Depression in the 1930's, put people in worried and desperate mood, and that, in turn, makes the situation harder to navigate. But there are more to the state of U.S. politics than the quality of the candidates or the economy.
www.en.wikipedia.org
The state of the politics at any time is the product of history, economy, struggle among factions for power/influence, wealth, and trend/mood of the people. Trying to get the feel of the politics through a few cliches is like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant. Political cliches and slogans are vital in a campaign, but it is no substitute for in depth understanding and critical analysis.
We have been watching Romney desperately trying to please the extreme wing of the right, the so-called tea partiers. They played a very important role in the last mid-term election, and they still seem to be in ascendancy as they are exerting influence in the Republican primaries in many states. But their provincial, narrow minded views are enabling narrow minded unqualified people to win the primaries, thus they are doing the Democrats a favor.
Paul Ryan www.en.wikipedia.org
This election cycle is most likely the beginning of the end of the tea party movement. The selection of Paul Ryan as the running mate brings to mind Sarah Palin. Compared to Palin, Ryan is, of course, better qualified candidate, but there is the feel of desperation and foreboding defeat. Both Palin and Ryan are not the running mates who can expand the Republican umbrella to attract more people into its party. The Republican party in the current state is becoming almost irrelevant. But then, we are facing many difficult issues and problems with no quick fix political solutions.
www.en.wikipedia.org
Ronald Reagan, famously, said that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Actually, it was not Reagan's idea alone; it had been building up in the extreme wing of the Republican party. He, certainly, was a capable mouthpiece. Since then, history has proven that government could be a very important solution to our problems mainly because government had to step in where Reagan's ideology had failed. Ryan is a Reagan wannabe without his sense of life.
The issues and problems are complex and deep-seated. The politics has become bitter and nasty game. In front of the problems we face the Republican candidates and many in the Congress seem like clueless juveniles. That is why the Congress has the worst approval rating ever at 10 percent in the recent poll. It'll take an epic novel to explain why and how we come to this.
One clear message the history gives is that government is not the solution to all of our problems; just to some of the problems. The ideology of 'wise king' or 'benevolent dictator' has been proven not to work. Just look at North Korea and the Chinese history. In the current political mood, the big government ideology has its own problems. There lies the problem of the extreme left. The issues are clear but the solutions have to imply complexities. In a political campaign, cliches and slogans dominate which is not adequate to address the problems and their solutions. This makes possible the declaration,"I'm an independent."
There is still some hope this election may turn out to be exciting and historic, in the sense of giving a clear choice and direction to the country. They will come in the form of the party conventions, first by the Republicans at the end of August at Tampa and followed by Democrats the following week at Charlotte; but they will mostly come from the three presidential debates, and one vice presidential debate in October.
Jim Lehrer www.en.wilipedia.org
They are going to be moderated by Jim Lehrer, Martha Raddatz, Candy Crowley, and Bob Schieffer, in that order. They are all accomplished and respected journalists. They all know the clear differences in the positions, and how important it is to make the public understand them. The elections have consequences,and, in this lackluster election cycle so far, the bet is on the debates.
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