This is one interesting election cycle.
President Obama is faced with an under performing economy, that has most Americans believing that we are on the "Wrong-Track." Yes, most people recognize that the bad economy was a "Gift" left to him by the prior administration, but after 3 years there is a feeling that the Obama administration has fallen short of expectations. There is a saying in politics, "People vote their pocketbooks," well with the middle class buying power falling, the European debt disaster at a tipping point; there is a great deal of fear and desperation. Those sentiments don't typically work well for an incumbent. On the plus-side, the people seem to like him personally, and do give him some points for catching Bin Laden, and Muammar el-Qaddafi
That said, the Republicans should be in a very strong position, and would be if they had amassed a more main-stream group of candidates.
For nearly a year, Mitt Romney has been seen as the front-runner for the nomination. During that time various candidates have risen up to take the spot as "The Anti-Romney Candidate" but each have fallen nearly as quickly as they rose. The newest flavor of the month is Newt Gingrich. All candidates have some past; there are points of pride but often also flaws. The bright-lights focused upon a candidate tend to uncover even carefully hidden mistakes, and questionable choices. the media focus has set it's sights on the new front-runner- Let's see what Skeletons Newt has in his closet. The fact that he was forced to resign the House, pay over $300,000 in fines in the face of ethics charges, had cheated on TWO wife's (one while under going cancer treatment), got paid $1,600,000.00 by Freddy-Mac, then called out anyone that supported them; strikes me as some real problems. But if not Newt, than who will be the Anti-Romney candidate?
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Cain: For weeks he was at the top of the polls; but beyond the closet, Cain's Skeletons, Are all over the house, in his trunk, in various hotels. It is difficult to see his campaign lasting a few more days, let alone becoming the nominee.
Perry: We looked in Perry's closet and found few Skeletons, but found the whole closet EMPTY. In fact he could not remember where his 3 closets were.
Bachman, they searched, and search, but found the whole closet filled with nothing but crazy ideas.
Paul: Has an isolationist and anti drug-law platform, that scares many on the "Right" and social policy agenda that terrifies the "Left"
Romney: In has closet they found his battery-pack and owners manual. (Robot 135-R). Maybe Romney is the "Anti-Romney" candidate; after all, he seems to be against everything he was for last year. It is clear that the republican base, does not care for him, despite polling that shows he's the candidate most likely to beat Obama.
The President has a tough fight before him. The fact that the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, and that.the country added 120,000 jobs, is clearly some good news for Obama's ability to convince the public that we are on the right-track. At the same time, problems in Europe loom-large and there is a serious question where our economy will be in coming months. As of today, the president's strongest selling point is the weakness of his challengers.
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