Increasingly it is looking like our choices for President in the Fall will come down to three choices; Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Roseanne Barr. Lately it seems that every four years we ask ourselves the same question, “Is this the best we can do?”.<\/p>\n
It is perplexing that in the contest for leader of the free world that we end up talking about choosing “the lesser of two evils”, or “holding our nose” while we vote. Everyone is waiting for the next George Washington, but notwithstanding the political advantage of his personal fortune, one wonders if Washington would make it through the primaries today! For one thing, Washington believed that political parties were an evil that could lead to the downfall of the country. One wonders what our nation would be like had we codified Washington’s admonition against political parties by banning them in our constitution. Washington was also a man of strong convictions and bold actions. He was not without enemies; the negative ads would abound. Washington would have to run an independent campaign, and would probably garner less than 15% of the vote. The only question is who the American public would elect instead of George Washington… Obama or Romney?<\/p>\n
In a blog from Great Britain, Dave Trott revisits the concept of the Budweiser Theory as it applies to politics. Simply put, the Budweiser Theory is that Budweiser became the best selling beer in the U.S. by being everyone’s second choice… the beer that nobody hates. While it might not be your first choice for yourself, it’s the safe choice if you’re buying for several other people; its blandness is its strength. In the world of politics the term “blandness” is re-labelled “electability”. This is how you end up with candidates like Romney and Obama. Romney is a shape-shifter. He becomes whatever it takes to win elections. This year he’s a conservative, militantly against Obamacare, which is based on his own health-care initiative in Massachusetts. Of course when he ran for governor of liberal Massachusetts, conservative leanings were far less emphasized! Inevitably, this leads people to question his core values, or whether he even has a core; but in the end that is what makes him “electable”. Obama is a silver-tongued magician. He takes shape-shifting to the next level, allowing the shifting to occur in the minds of the electorate. Despite extraordinarily weak credentials, he defeated heavy-weights Hillary Clinton and John McCain by using an oratory skill that both aroused passion and devotion by using words nebulous enough to seem to agree with various factions of the electorate. Words like “hope and change”, meant different things to different people, but the vacuum of his political record allowed people to believe he agreed with them, and this became his greatest strength. With three years of policy behind him, this becomes a more difficult trick to pull off; time will tell just how magical he is.<\/p>\n
I don’t mean to join the throngs coronating Romney, but Florida did end up being the perfect storm for him. His only serious competition, Gingrich, faltered badly both in style and strategy. Romney performed very well in the debates, as did Santorum which resulted in both grabbing votes from Newt. Now Santorum will continue on to Missouri, which in all probability will fatally prolong the division of the “not-Romney” vote. The upcoming primaries are almost all favorable to Romney, who already has the momentum. The only hope for the anti-Mitt folks is a far-fetched pipe dream for a brokered convention; a dream that will be shattered by the sunrise of reality in the form of cold hard cash; the expense of running a campaign in the face of dwindling contributions.<\/p>\n
IMHO: And so it would seem that we are set up for the “battle of the blands” in November as both candidates move to the center “where elections are won or lost”. Will there ever come a day that the American public will look for a more substantial candidate? Will we ever become sickened by the blandness of the party choices, and take a risk with someone of depth and convictions? It would take a very special person and special circumstances; yes, perhaps another George Washington, or God forbid, an Adolf Hitler. Until that day, I guess I’ll have another Budweiser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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