I’ve had the privilege to meet and hear both President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in person during the past few weeks, and I’ve come away from those experiences more convinced than ever that the President and First Lady are truly dedicated to the best interests of our country and are working diligently to promote jobs, education, health care and a rational foreign policy.
The same can certainly not be said for the Republican presidential contenders. The more I see and hear them in their debates and in other public gatherings, the more I’m convinced that any one of them would bring disastrous consequences for our country and the world. Let’s look at the four who seem to be the leading candidates for the G.O.P. nomination.
Mitt Romney still seems to me most likely to end up as the Republican nominee for President. Though he looks presidential, he is a deeply flawed candidate. His record of flip-flopping makes John Kerry look like a model of consistency. In three days in late October, for example, Romney endorsed the war on the middle class being waged by the Ohio Republican Party as it struggled to sustain its flagging campaign to deny public employees collective bargaining rights. Then when he visited a phone bank promoting the anti-employee rights position in the Ohio referendum, he indicated that he was neutral on the issue. When this outraged the right-wing nuts and Romney’s greedy big-business backers, he the next day announced that he really did endorse the attack on public servants’ rights. On abortion, health care, Social Security and a number of other issues, Romney has taken sharply opposing positions over the years. Romney could stage an interesting debate with himself, given the contradictory positions that he has taken again and again. He is clearly not a man worthy of trust. His only consistency has been his deep attachment to shifting the wealth of the middle class into the hands of his rich supporters, a trait that he shares with Rick Perry and Herman Cain. On that point, Romney has shown consistency over years, not just days or months. Though most of the electorate remain lukewarm toward Romney, I still think that he’ll be the Republican nominee. Why? Because most of the Wall Street crowd and most of the greediest elements in big business favor him, and they hold the Republican party in their iron grip.
Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich appear to be the only other G.O.P. contenders with any realistic chance of winning the presidential nomination. Perry shot into the lead in polls shortly after he announced his candidacy. However, he has fizzled thanks to his pitifully inept performance in the debates and interviews, his sleazy ties to the worst elements in the Texas business community, his uninformed crackpot ideas on a wide variety of topics (the latest being his completely incoherent tax and budget proposals) and his really bizarre presentation in New Hampshire at the end of October. I’ll bet that Jeff Brandes and other local Republicans who rushed to jump on the Perry bandwagon are regretting their actions now! Then, again, perhaps not! Brandes is not one of the brightest bulbs in the closet.
As Perry’s fortunes have declined, Herman Cain’s have risen. However, his lack of campaign infrastructure, his own uninformed crackpot ideas (9,9,9 for example, which would dramatically raise taxes on most Americans while giving the rich a bonanza) and his total lack of knowledge about foreign policy seem likely to undermine his campaign at some point. The recent revelations about his alleged sexual harassment and settlement payments may hasten his decline, though his poll standings have so far weakened only slightly.
As Perry and Cain have stumbled, Newt Gingrich’s once nearly dead campaign has begun to revive. Yet Gingrich’s long record of hypocrisy (condemning Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs while pursuing his own), extremism (shutting down the federal government) and ethical violations (a $300,000 fine for ethics violations as House Speaker) raise obvious questions about the viability of his candidacy.
We’ll see how the campaign evolves. Since there are almost always some surprising twists and turns in politics, there likely will be some of those between now and November 2012. Nevertheless, the multiple strengths of our President and the manifest weaknesses of his most likely Republican opponents give me hope for the 2012 election outcome.
Please join our local Obama for America efforts to prepare effectively for 2012. Check our club website at www.largodemocrats.com for frequent updates on what’s happening in our neighborhood. Come to our phone banks, make virtual phone bank calls from home, get certified to register voters and attend rallies that boost our cause. Just give me a call at 727-588-0891 or 813-210-7457 or send me an email message at rpiper3404@aol.com if you’d like to get more involved. Victoria Kirby, Regional Field Director for the Obama Campaign (OFA), will be a guest speaker at our November 21 club meeting at the Thirsty Marlin at 7:00 PM.
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