There aren’t too many news outlets that will put it this way, but this primary season doesn’t make me ashamed to be a citizen of these United States of America.
It’s like some kind of dream from which I fear I might awaken and find out that the real candidates are genetically recombined clones of George Bush Jr. and the preserved genetic material of Ronald Reagan, known only as “The Omega-Conservative Mark II.”
It seems some kind of social miracle that a vast majority of the candidates, both Democratic and Republican, don’t seem to have some kind of grotesque flaw that, while entirely obvious, goes unnoticed by the voting public. How do you know it’s a true miracle? Because it keeps going, dropping presents in my lap like some kind of political Santa Claus.
It’s very gratifying when a political party has a president in office, but consistently attempts to distance themselves from him because he is so unbelievably unpopular.
The delicious whipped crème topping on this sundae of crow is all the years Republicans spent “supporting the president” to now be forced to try to tow the partly line, but not in any way that resembles the current administration. It’s like watching someone try to touch their left elbow with their left hand.
When watching the debates I’ve found well-educated, experienced politicians politely (as far as politics can be polite) debating key issues. It’s sickening to realize that this should seem so unusual, and that we should feel so privileged to live in times when presidential candidates were not an exercise in determining the lesser evil. Considering that most anyone can be president, we would hope that America could produce at least eight or so people of quality given the size of our population.
Media outlets find these primaries frustrating. When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were trading some relatively soft barbs, all of the major 24-hour news channels were declaring things like “the gloves are off” and stood in judgment of their competitive manner. Within the week both candidates had cooled their speech and became very polite. The 24-hour news channels then moaned that they were becoming some kind of non-threatening pair of kittens. It’s obvious that they don’t know how to handle news that doesn’t fit into a well defined stereotype.
At least it’s a bipartisan ineptitude. During the CNN Republican debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Anderson Cooper left Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul out of most of the debate like the two kids last picked for soccer. This leads me to believe if there isn’t tension, the news networks are going to try to fabricate it. “This is directed at you Gov. Romney: Sen. McCain has been quoted as saying you smell; how would respond to this during a time of war?”
I’m looking forward to wear the primaries will take us, and who will be paired with who as vice-presidential canidates. More exciting is who will be in the final round of America’s next top president. I honestly can say I’m not terribly dreading any particular candidates as I have in the last two elections.
In the end it’s still a very acceptable race. I hope this is not the last time that I actually have to pick from a group of candidates I like, rather than having to pick from a group of lackluster corporate shills thinking only “Anybody but that guy, he’ll get us all killed.”
Well, Romney might.