The Circus is Coming to Town

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

The Circus is Coming to Town

We are clearly launched on the every four-year cycle of presidential politics and elections. It is a time for gathering information (and disinformation), getting acquainted with new faces (and reacquainted with tired old ones), getting excited about a candidate’s prospect (and moaning over the prospects of other candidates), getting a chance to actually argue with friends over matters we rarely discuss when together (and the chance to lose friends and eat “humble pie”), but most importantly it is a reminder that in our nation we do actually get to choose our leaders.

At this early stage there are so many people trying to convince us they can do a better job than the fellow we have now that it is tough to keep track. Then we have the “fellow we have now” who has poll numbers that suggest his best hope is that the other party will nominate someone totally unacceptable to voters.

It is too bad that these elections cannot really be about issues.

 Back when Jack Kennedy was president and he anticipated his friend, the conservative U.S. Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, would be his opponent, the two of them talked about the great opportunity to debate liberalism vs. conservatism as it applies to policies and programs and to do so in a civilized, meaningful way.

Of course fate intervened and that planned for civilized campaign of ideas never materialized.

As television and the internet played an even greater role in every subsequent election, things like ideas often got lost with candidates who were “easy on the eyes,” and candidates who could tote big ideas knowing that the likelihood of any of them every getting passed by Congress (think Clinton and health care) never seemed to cause the voter to look beyond the campaign promise.

We also have not done a very good job of holding successful candidates to their pledges/promises. Every now and then someone publishes a list of promises versus a list of actual performance on the promises, and most presidents don’t do very well in such comparisons.

After the primary dust-ups are over we will be presented with two people who want to lead us the next four years. It really doesn’t matter if we liked others who fell by the wayside during the primaries. At the end of the day we have to decide which one of the two presented is preferable to our thinking.

We can be pretty sure that one of the two, if history is a reliable predictor, will be the incumbent president. So there will be a referendum on the presidency of Barak Obama. The nation will decide if four more years of President Obama is more enticing than four years with someone new.

A great deal can happen between now and the presidential election. Undoubtedly, we will enjoy mixed moments of excitement and dread. But it is an important process and equally necessary for us to play our part. Everyone who writes on the subject will have a bias. If they tell you they do not, stop reading their columns. The best a columnist can do is tell you his bias and then try to be as even handed as possible in presenting the facts. The reader assumes the responsibility of weighing the balance in determining how convincing the column might be.

There is a difference between reporting and writing an opinion column.

As we start the political/presidential season, I can honestly tell you I have no idea which candidate I will find the most convincing. It would be impossible to reach such a determination without knowing whom the two people will be from which I will make a choice.

What I can tell you is that I do not like the direction of our country at this moment and I seem, according to the polls, to enjoy the company of a great majority of Americans. Does that mean I would vote for “anyone but Obama?”  That would be an indefensible position.

It is entirely possible for the Republicans to find a candidate who could do no better than Obama. You can bet this possibility is very popular in The White House. Alternatively, it is equally possible the Republicans will find a candidate who will convince us they can do a better job than the incumbent.

That discussion is what the political circus season is all about.

Welcome to the Midway.

Enjoy the Side Shows.

Get ready for the Center Ring.