Day: January 9, 2012

Alright, I admit it…

I actually sat through one of the New Hampshire debates. Well most of it anyway, before I had to go throw up.

Now that Ms. Bachmann has left the race I find that I’m paying more attention the the so-called “real” candidates. I just couldn’t help myself before. I kept focusing on ol’ crazy eyes and thinking to myself this woman is already a member of Congress representing Minnesota.

How the hell did that happen?

Now that she’s out of the race I was watching the posturing by the remaining candidates and discovered that if I closed my eyes i honestly couldn’t tell the candidates apart. There were two exceptions to this I could identify Gingrich and Romney.

Perry, Santorum, Huntsman and Paul pretty much sounded alike. I’m speaking here of their answers and their voices…

They all sounded like the background chatter at a really bad party. You know, the kind of party where everyone is just drunk enough to make complete asses of themselves but not quite drunk enough to leave.

I will say this, Romney “sounds” Presidential . He’s got a resonant quality to his voice that is compelling and commanding. By comparison Gingrich, sounds a little whiney.

Romney also has the classic “Presidential Look”. Gingrich by comparison looks a bit like the kind of guy who should be in the back room of a meat packing plant with a fat cigar making deals about who is going to have control of a trash delivery route.

I think it’s going to come down to a Romney nomination.
If we assume that President Obama is out, then I’m betting as people choose among evils I think they’ll choose Romney.

The thing to remember is that The President really has far less impact on policy than we give him credit for.

America is a very big ship, and like the Titanic it doesn’t turn on a dime. The presidential influence over a four year span is pretty minimal. If you consider that we ended up where we are after two terms of a fiercly conservative President and essentially 8 years of fighting wars on two fronts (Everyone knows that’s a bad idea…) then it’s completely unrealistic to expect a President to change the countrys direction in a single term.

Yet that is exactly what people expected of President Obama, and here we are poised to have the same unrealistic expectations of a New President.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of President Obama. But the reasons aren’t because he “Failed” to bring about Change or increase Hope. I have always been concerned that President Obama was inexperienced and that he’s way too much of an apologist.

As to his ability to govern, well that is directly related to how co-operative the congress is. I think we ALL know how that’s working out.

It’s a given that the current crop of Republican candidates are going to be conservative. If anything the Republican party is attempting to present an almost polar opposite choice to President Obama. This is typical thinking of the current Republican party. Most of the moderates have decided to shut up and sit this one out.

The GOP is all about an almost binary logic (On/Off, Right/Wrong, Belief in God/Atheist). They’re sadly missing the point that a large majority of America is actually pretty moderate.

I’m increasingly having a hard time forcing myself to believe that our system is still working…