Election season is fast approaching. Knowing what happened in 2008 is the key to recognizing what will happen in 2012. Many progressive still haven’t realized how Obama got elected. There wasn’t a groundswell of first-time voters. There wasn’t a huge turnout, and the same amount of young voters participated in the process. Barack Obama defeated the unpopular incumbent party represented by John McCain. There wasn’t a change in the electorate.
Americans were fed up with out-of-control spending, massive debt, and big government. Barack Obama’s campaign was a nebulous cloud of hope and change. It was a campaign about nothing. Thanks to the media’s adoration of Obama he was allowed to campaign on nothing. No GOP nominee for president will ever receive the press coverage that Obama received. I’m not sure any candidate from any party will ever be the beneficiary of the same hands-off coverage Obama received. If you’re still not convinced, just read this from November 2008:
The 12-question, multiple-choice survey found questions regarding statements linked to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin were far more likely to be answered correctly by Obama voters than questions about statements associated with Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden.
Most Obama voters are still unaware of what happened, but many of them know they’ve been had. The reality of the Obama administration is that he isn’t a forward thinker. Obama’s solution for every problem is the same solution Democrats/Republicans have been using since the New Deal.
After 9/11 the nation faced an issue where our vast government bureaucracies in the CIA and the FBI were not in communication with each other. What was the solution by President Bush? He helped create the Department of Homeland Security. Now we have three vast government bureaucracies that will not communicate with each other. Bush was no conservative. His idea of a solution was a New Deal type of solution; that government can do just about everything. This philosophy is the exact opposite of America’s founding philosophy.
After the financial crisis the nation faced an economy with a crisis of confidence. What was President Obama’s solution? An $800 billion dollar stimulus bill filled with pork that hasn’t accomplished anything. This wasn’t change. It wasn’t a new idea. This is buyer’s remorse. President Obama is so brainwashed into the status quo that he’s out of ideas. Reduce the size of government? Reduce regulations? Tort reform? There are the ideas of the extremists. It’s the great irony of the modern Progressive that bitterly clings to thoroughly archaic programs and ideas.
When the GOP nominee is finally declared the President Obama and the Democratic party will call the person extreme. They’ve been doing it for over 50 years. It’s not just the Democratic party. An editor of a major newspaper has told Douglas Mackinnon off the record that “we plan to declare war on Rick Perry and do all in our power to crush him.” Why wouldn’t anyone believe that statement? Here’s a President Carter campaign ad from 1980.
The Tea Party movement isn’t the racist result of having an African-American in the White House. It’s the result of decades of government spending, regulation, massive debt, and taxation. It’s the result of Americans getting fed up with two parties that promise to change, but stay the same. Democrats tried to tell the nation that Ronald Reagan was too risky to be president. How much really changed because of the extreme President Reagan? Maybe it’s time we quit worrying about extreme change. At this point the nation is in desperate need of real change that empowers the individual, not government.
Last night’s Republican presidential debate was the first debate I’ve watched from beginning to end. These kind of debates are normally boring, but this one managed to remain relatively entertaining. The Republican race is easily more fascinating right now that the Democrat side. It appears to just about everyone that Senator Clinton has a vice grip on the nomination. This was clearly evident when her name came up over and over during the course of the night.
It’s a bit silly to declare a winner for these events. There are some losers though. Clearly two people have no business even being in the race right now. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter are just taking up space. Ron Paul isn’t exactly lighting up the polls either, but at least there are people really excited about his campaign. With so little time remain Here were the three candidates I thought looked particularly good last night.
Rudy Giuliani: Say what you want about his politics, the man can think quick on his feet. Any normal politician would have been dead and buried now with his nuanced positions on topics from gun control to abortion. Rudy was taking a beating early in the debate but managed to look good. For political junkies a Hillary vs. Rudy is the dream match up, but I just can’t see Giuliani keeping this ship afloat much longer.
Fred Thompson: Thompson looked much more comfortable on the stage than during his last debate. It seemed to me he had the toughest questions to answer throughout the night. He was asked about the Turkey/Iraq standoff, Social Security, and whether or not he was “lazy.” Thompson seemed well prepared and he was very funny throughout.
John McCain: The Senator from Arizona came out swinging. I’ve never been a huge fan of McCain but I was really impressed with him last night. In many ways he seemed the most presidential. There’s no doubt McCain is the most qualified person running for president. He thrives in the underdog role and at this point he’s a real long shot. His love affair with the press is over, but “the comeback” is a good story.
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also had a strong showing. There’s no doubt he’s well versed in the culture of corruption the Clinton’s left in Arkansas (see: whitewater). Huckabee is funny and communicates very well, but some of his economic ideas (CEO salaries for example) are outdated.
Mitt Romney is a robot. His answers are too canned. The former governor of Massachusetts just seems too packaged to me. There are just too many inconsistencies about Romney for me to take him seriously.
The field is wide open. There’s no clear front runner. My gut tells me it’s between Rudy, Thompson, and McCain. With the pushed up primary season this may all be wrapped up by February. The Republicans have a lot of ground to make up before November 2008 if they hope to keep the White House. Oh yeah, President Bush is still in the oval office. His name was conspicuously absent during the debate.
The 2008 election is shaping up to be one of the most boring in recent memory, if the conventional wisdom stays true to form. The Republican Party is a mess. They have no direction, an unpopular president in the White House, and no one to communicate any new ideas. It’s all low taxes, smaller government, Ronald Reagan, and no specifics. There’s no ambition and no big ideas. We have a bloated government that most American’s want downsized, but the Republicans never do anything about it.
The entire government could be run more efficiently, and several departments could be downsized or removed all together. Ron Paul advocates removing the Department of Agriculture. Yeah, that’s a pretty crazy idea, but do we really need it? Is the United States and agriculture country anymore, the answer is no. Unfortunately once a department gets created it never goes away. So we spend trillions on things we don’t need. What about the tax code? Everyone agrees it’s terrible. Republicans have been talking about changing it forever, but we’ve got nothing to show for it.
The Democrats don’t have anything to offer either; however, they’re the alternative. Not being a Republican is going to be good enough to win. Every day I’m more and more convinced that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President. Which is astonishing considering the complaints about Bush. For Americans tired of corruption and scandal it’s difficult to believe that the wife of one of the most scandal ridden presidential administrations in the history of the country will offer a real change.
Hillary Clinton has been consolidating power with the Democrat Party for over a decade. She would enter the White House during one of the most pessimistic times in recent history. Senator Clinton would also be one of the most divisive Presidents every elected. Despite all of those factors she will likely be the next President. That’s if the conventional wisdom is true. It would be a huge upset if another Democrat gets the nomination. Has our political process really come to this? There’s less than thirteen months to find out.
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