Hi everyone!
At least from my perspective, a sense of ennui seems to be hanging over the reporting of much of today's news. With the exception of continuous analysis of last Tuesday's Iowa caucus--in case you haven't heard (which is unlikely), Mitt Romney eked out a narrow victory over Rick Santorum, winning the caucus by merely eight votes--there's not a whole lot to get excited or incensed about today. I feel at least it's too early in the game to expend too much time and attention to the U.S. presidential race. I'm not a political junkie--at least not as far as U.S. politics is concerned--so I'm really not going to devote too much time in this blog to the race to unseat Barack Obama in November. If you haven't already surmised, I'm not an Obama supporter. I didn't jump onto the Obama bandwagon in 2008 when his star was on the ascendent and four years later I'm certainly not going to hitch my horse to his team.
While I would like to see a change in the White House this year, unless things go horribly wrong for Obama between now and Election Day I'm doubtful my wish is going to come true. I just can't get excited about this crop of Republican wannabes. Mitt Romney seems the best choice out of the lot--i.e. he comes across as the least offensive and appears to be, at least on the surface, an intelligent and decent guy. He had a good record as governor of Massachusetts. And the fact that he received Senator John McCain's endorsement yesterday boosts the likelihood of his chances. For the record, I liked McCain in 2008...until he chose that annoying Alaska governor as his running mate and then it was just one big downhill snowball from there, not gaining momentum particularly, just rumbling rather awkwardly to oblivion.
As for the other GOP hopefuls, Rick Santorum...really? With those awful sweater vests and that hair he looks like he's trying to channel Joel Osteen...and not very successfully. As for Ron Paul...going into New Hampshire next week, he has a surprisingly devoted fan base in the under-40s. I nominally agree with him on domestic issues. I just don't trust his foreign policy. I'm not an ageist at all, but 76 is really too old. And Newt? Whatever.
The problem is, American politics is too skewed to the far-right and the far-left, leaving those of us in the middle (the sane and silent majority) with very little to choose from. It's become less about a candidate's true stance on foreign or domestic policy and more about his/her ability to raise millions of dollars in cash to keep the campaign running and certain lobbyists happy. I've never felt any real connection to any of the candidates in any of the elections I've voted in over the years. And voting just for the sake of voting is not terribly constructive.
What if there was another choice on our nation's ballots come Election Day? What if the ballot read something like this:
___ Barack Obama
___ Mitt Romney
___ None of the Above
I'd be really interested to see what would happen if a significant percentage of U.S. eligible voters punched the bottom chad. While it's a pipe dream, I don't doubt that third option aligns more closely with how most of America really feels.
But who cares about the silent majority?
Ciao.
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