Saturday, August 20, 2011

I'm already sick of the campaign

It's only August of 2011, the election isn't until the end of next year, and I'm already sick of the presidential campaign.  It all seems so pointless.


Obama seems to be listless and ineffective.  What is he going to run on, battling the evil Republicans if he wins in 2012?  Finding ways to bring the parties together if he wins in 2012?  He has tried both and hasn't been able to even come close on either count.  If he weren't the nation's first black president he would be challenged from the left in the primaries, and he would probably lose.  But no progressive can possibly challenge the nation's first black president without destroying their own political career and engendering the everlasting hatred from the black voters.


The Republican field is pathetic.  Romney's only virtue is that no one believes that he believes what he is saying in order to pander to the right wing Tea Party ideologues.  Bachman is frightening, but not likely to win the nomination.  Huntsman is probably a pretty good, reasonable candidate but doesn't seem to be gaining any traction.  Rick Perry seems to be a caricature of W, and if the Republicans think that the nation is eager for a harsher, meaner, more intolerant version of W they are even crazier than they sound.


If Chris Christie got into the race, I could get interested pretty quickly.  What little I have seen of him has been interesting.  He speaks from the heart and with courage, and he seems to have some level of maturity and intelligence.  Of course, all candidates look attractive until they enter the race, and then who they are gets scrutinized and the bloom goes off the rose.


The amazing thing is that every president has been a truly remarkable person in many respects.  They didn't get there without an enormous amount of talent.  Within a year of their presidency the whole world knows exactly what their weakness are.  Nixon was a power abusive paranoid, Carter was indecisive and naive, Reagan was ... pretty good, really on a personal level unless you hated his ideology, H W Bush was remote and out of touch with middle America, Clinton was devious and lacking in moral character, W Bush was bull headed and incurious, Obama is remote, passionless, too accommodating.  Why anyone wants to become the president so that what the whole world knows about you is what no one wants anyone to know is quite a mystery.  Ego is a strange director of one's life, but I have to give most of them credit, they seem to really want to make changes in the country that they believe in.


I just can't see what Obama can credibly run on.  Vote for me, but I can't do anything about Washington, so you have to vote out all the Republicans too?  Vote for Obama, he can't change anything... now there's a stirring campaign theme.  Republicans are evil and Democrats are powerless, vote for the powerless rather than the evil buffoons... ah the campaign slogans that await!