The Setup for the November Elections
A Republican his own party can't stand, against a Democrat who's turned his back on Change We Can Believe In
And they call tomorrow Super Tuesday. Mitt Romney will no doubt sew up the nomination tomorrow and handlers will rush in to sew up the party wounds in what would more accurately be called Singer Tuesday, in honor of the sewing machine company.
On January 6th, some dude named Stewart Alexander announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party and then the fun began.
Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire straw poll later in the month. By the end of March, nine additional unknowns signed up to run. Household names; Herman Cain, Randall Terry, Andy Martin, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Buddy Roemer, Tim Pawlenty, Fred Karger and Rick Santorum and the 2012 Animal House Republican nomination system swung into gear. Others dropped in and out to join in the fun; Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry all stopped by for a drink and a momentary standing atop the polls.
Then the grind. The 'debates' have been endless and destructive, far more of a 'last man standing' contest than one of may the best man win. By the end, there was no best man (or woman). There were only candidates unfit for the office by varying degrees and the embarrassment of that truth merely winnowed the final four to those who had not fatally wounded themselves by shots other than to the foot.
Mitt will be the Republican nominee. Choke it down.
Sitting in his hermetically sealed Oval Office, far from the public who trusted him to bring 'change they could believe in,' the current Democratic President can probably coast this one out. But presidential politics is more than ever a matter of the state of the union thirty days before the election and no one can truly know that. One of the more interesting aspects of American elections is that we do not, by and large, vote for a candidate with any real enthusiasm--we vote overwhelmingly against the other guy. I would guess the reason for this is too many Barack Obamas cluttering up the pre-election rhetoric with promises they have no intention of keeping. We have been led once too often to the altar and deserted by the bride.
Obama, more than any sitting president in my memory, had the unusual and seldom presented opportunity to truly be a statesman. There was as much gone wrong in America since 9-11 and the Bush administration as any president inherited, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. Barack opted for politics and failed the nation. He is a young president, among the youngest and he will have decades to ponder what might have been had he been a statesman.
Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate. His supporters will have to choke him down as well.
So, November will bring an election that will choose from two flawed candidates; one who has said anything to be the candidate and the other who will ask us to 'trust him this time.' It's a sad state of affairs for the nation and an example, I suppose, of how badly men want this office of president.
It's amazing what men and women will do to satisfy that itch.