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.
Showing posts with label Mitt Romney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mitt Romney. Show all posts
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Saturday, December 31, 2011
From the Arab Spring to the Russian Winter: 2011 in Review
Hi everyone!
Hard to believe it's the end of another year...and what an eventful year 2011 has been. From an international perspective, 2011 brought about waves of tremendous change: from Tunis to Cairo, Tripoli to Damascus, Benghazi to Moscow and beyond, the world witnessed demonstration after demonstration that affirmed and reaffirmed the power of the individual and collective voice to move mountains and bring about positive change. From the Arab Spring to the Russian Winter, it seemed not a day went by when we weren't greeted with incredible scenes of personal courage spurred on by gross government abuse and corruption.
2011 wasn't a good year for dictators. We saw the demise of longtime Libyan strongman and resident crazy Muammar Qaddafi; the overthrow of Egyptian dictator and Western ally Hosni Mubarak; and the fall of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In the midst of all this, we witnessed the deaths of terrorist icon Osama bin Laden and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. 2011 ended with the largest anti-government demonstrations in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and, for the first time in eight years, Prime Minister Putin's iron grip on the Kremlin may be loosening as another round of protests has been called for February.
But there remains a lot to be done. As we count down the final hours to 2012, Syrian President Bashir Assad seems determined to maintain control of his country by any and all means possible. While on the one hand he invites representatives from the Arab League to observe his "compliance" with an international mandate to cut back on the violence with which his government handles the protesters, on the other he sends troops to open fire on peaceful protesters in Hama and Homs a mere two-three blocks away from the Arab League delegation. Innocent Syrian men, women, and children are being mowed down in cold blood while the Arab League observers remark that nothing seems to be out of order. I suppose this isn't surprising when the delegation itself is led by Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi who has, no doubt, more than his share of blood on his hands from his work in support of Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir. (Darfur, anyone?)
Unfortunately, things aren't looking so great in Egypt either. The interim military-led government recently launched a series of raids on foreign and domestic NGOs in Cairo, stealing computers and documents and preventing humanitarian aid workers from doing their work. Iran appears to be flexing its muscles again in the wake of threatened sanctions against its banking industry by threatening to cut off access to the Strait of Hormuz, thus disrupting the flow and transport of oil to the rest of the world. North Korea continues to assure the smooth transition of power to Kim Jong-il's youngest son Kim Jong-un, who vowed to continue his government's policy of zero cooperation with South Korea. The future is still up-in-the-air in Russia as well. Will Alexei Navalny and the tens of thousands who support him successfully alter the outcome of March's presidential elections? ... or will they and the rest of the democratic world be sorely disappointed?
And, of course, here in the US we face another election year. Will Obama's sadly underwhelming and arguably rather inept four years in office be awarded another term, or will we see the election of Republican Mitt Romney, who would be the nation's first Mormon president? Next week's upcoming Iowa caucus will officially launch the 2012 presidential race.
Hold on, folks...if you thought 2011 was a wild ride, wait till you see 2012!
Ciao.
Hard to believe it's the end of another year...and what an eventful year 2011 has been. From an international perspective, 2011 brought about waves of tremendous change: from Tunis to Cairo, Tripoli to Damascus, Benghazi to Moscow and beyond, the world witnessed demonstration after demonstration that affirmed and reaffirmed the power of the individual and collective voice to move mountains and bring about positive change. From the Arab Spring to the Russian Winter, it seemed not a day went by when we weren't greeted with incredible scenes of personal courage spurred on by gross government abuse and corruption.
2011 wasn't a good year for dictators. We saw the demise of longtime Libyan strongman and resident crazy Muammar Qaddafi; the overthrow of Egyptian dictator and Western ally Hosni Mubarak; and the fall of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In the midst of all this, we witnessed the deaths of terrorist icon Osama bin Laden and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. 2011 ended with the largest anti-government demonstrations in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and, for the first time in eight years, Prime Minister Putin's iron grip on the Kremlin may be loosening as another round of protests has been called for February.
But there remains a lot to be done. As we count down the final hours to 2012, Syrian President Bashir Assad seems determined to maintain control of his country by any and all means possible. While on the one hand he invites representatives from the Arab League to observe his "compliance" with an international mandate to cut back on the violence with which his government handles the protesters, on the other he sends troops to open fire on peaceful protesters in Hama and Homs a mere two-three blocks away from the Arab League delegation. Innocent Syrian men, women, and children are being mowed down in cold blood while the Arab League observers remark that nothing seems to be out of order. I suppose this isn't surprising when the delegation itself is led by Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi who has, no doubt, more than his share of blood on his hands from his work in support of Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir. (Darfur, anyone?)
Unfortunately, things aren't looking so great in Egypt either. The interim military-led government recently launched a series of raids on foreign and domestic NGOs in Cairo, stealing computers and documents and preventing humanitarian aid workers from doing their work. Iran appears to be flexing its muscles again in the wake of threatened sanctions against its banking industry by threatening to cut off access to the Strait of Hormuz, thus disrupting the flow and transport of oil to the rest of the world. North Korea continues to assure the smooth transition of power to Kim Jong-il's youngest son Kim Jong-un, who vowed to continue his government's policy of zero cooperation with South Korea. The future is still up-in-the-air in Russia as well. Will Alexei Navalny and the tens of thousands who support him successfully alter the outcome of March's presidential elections? ... or will they and the rest of the democratic world be sorely disappointed?
And, of course, here in the US we face another election year. Will Obama's sadly underwhelming and arguably rather inept four years in office be awarded another term, or will we see the election of Republican Mitt Romney, who would be the nation's first Mormon president? Next week's upcoming Iowa caucus will officially launch the 2012 presidential race.
Hold on, folks...if you thought 2011 was a wild ride, wait till you see 2012!
Ciao.
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