Campaign Gripes

Doesn’t it strike you as completely asinine that people seeking the office of President in the 2008 election have had to campaign so early? I try to put myself into the positions of the candidates themselves and I see some problems. For one, the Democrats all feel as if they need to comment on anything and everything that President Bush is acting upon (or not acting upon). It’s not so much that they want to seem like nitpicking, chronic critics: the media that they struggle for access to and exposure in brings up these issues to them, demanding a response. Since I’m of the opinion that, Republican or Democrat, the President is going to act similarly in many situations, it forces opposition party candidates to often take unreasonable stances on issues, as well as creating the impression that they are all doomsayers and that every “silver lining” has a “cloud”! You don’t hear too many of them saying, “Yes, I agree with Bush on this issue” very much, do you? Republican candidates, it seems to me, don’t have the same problem as the Democrats, for whether or not they agree with the President’s actions on specific issues, they can opt for “supporting the office” of President by restraining their criticism of his performance. Democratic front-runners like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, on the other hand, seem to have the irreconcilable task of simultaneously having “important” things to say in order to stay in the media spotlight while looking “presidential” all the time. But part of the image of a President is that he or she is a calm, wise, deliberative soul who weighs options, listens to sagely advice, and then acts decisively. The campaign, at this early stage, belies that image for which the candidates are trying to project about themselves. And in the midst of it all, they are all seeking money contributions, also belying a myth that we still like to entertain in America that it’s we the people who choose our President and elected representatives.

Funny thing, though, I have rarely ever voted in a primary election when the nomination wasn’t already pretty much wrapped up. I thought that, this time, all of the primaries had been moved up to prevent states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina from having an idiotically disproportionate role in the nominating process. So where are all the candidates campaigning this time around? Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina! I even heard that lagging Democratic candidate New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson proclaimed that the state of Iowa was a major target for terrorists (so they obviously need all sorts of extra Federal funding). I don’t suppose the impending Iowa caucuses had anything to do with that statement! What was the point of all the other states moving up their primaries several weeks if Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina move their votes up to stay ahead of them? I don’t know about you, but I’m really getting tired, in this nation of 300 million people, of the same obnoxious curmudgeons in small Iowa and New Hampshire towns being pandered to by my future “national” leaders! And Iowa’s isn’t even a legitimate primary election!