As of right now, it looks like it will in fact be four more years for the current Head of State President Barack Obama. Unless Mitt Romney can make up ground in the next six and a half weeks, the Republicans will have to continue to resort on their strategy of blocking every bill as they wait for 2016 for one more chance to retake the White House. So far, it looks like Romney’s chances are skidding and he most likely is going to be a distant memory in just a matter of months.
Making Adjustments
With a leaked tape of Romney making questionable statements (Who would have thought saying you don’t care about 47% of the people in the country you’re trying to get elected in would turn into a negative situation?) and after a strong Democratic National Convention moved things heavily in favor of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, Romney had to change up his strategy and work on beating Obama in a new way. Now Romney is putting his efforts towards trying to put down Obama’s record in office. Romney really has no choice as his own words on his views and plans have not only been heavily criticized by Democrats, but also by his own fellow Republicans.
Now Romney is going to try to focus your eyes on his perceived shortcomings of the Obama administration and also unfulfilled promises. If this strategy does not work out for Romney, then there are going to be major problems for the former Governor of Massachusetts. But also, there might be some major problems coming to other members of the Republican Party due to the errors of Romney and the blunders he has made.
House of Representatives and Senate
We must not forget that this November we will not only be voting on who will be the President of the United States of America for the next four years, but we will also be electing Senators and Representatives for the House all over the United States. Not only does each party want to have the majority in the House, but also at least 60 seats in the Senate. And all of that is in addition to controlling the Presidency and thus controlling all of Congress.
This is where a problem comes into play for the Republicans. Political psychology teaches us that often times the perception of a party’s presidential candidate influences the perception of other members of the party and the party overall. Thus, while Mitt Romney may have hurt himself in the presidential race, he may have also decreased the number of seats the Republicans will get in both the House and the Senate.
Republican Errors
The Republicans had a lot going their way going into the 2012 Presidential Election. To their credit, Republicans in Congress were able to not let Obama pass legislation the way he wanted and thus were able to point out that he did not pass the bills how he said he would.
But then Republicans made some errors along the way. Over time, it became painfully clear that any lacks in progress were due to the Republicans watering down important bills and standing in the way of much needed economic changes, such as ending the Bush-era tax cuts, which allowed the richest Americans to pay a lower percentage of taxes than the middle class or lower class, which have to pay a higher percentage of taxes.
Add to that the fact that there was no dominating Republican presidential candidate and you have a recipe for failure for the party in red. Sure, Romney was very clearly the most popular choice for the Republican Party, but neither he nor anyone else the party had to offer what was a prominent enough figure or was able to capture the hearts of Americans to truly put up a real fight against Obama.
November
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we know how most citizens will vote already. There are millions of Republicans who won’t stray from the party no matter what blunders Romney makes. And there are millions of Democrats who won’t stray from the Democratic Party no matter who the candidate is. We all know that extremely close-minded liberal and that equally extremely close-minded conservative, and we know no facts or viewpoints will ever change their minds.
But we have the middle. Romney and Obama must still fight for the 10-15% of voters who aren’t completely committed to either side yet. And in November, we will know just where the truly politically open-minded in our nation will lead us.
I would vote for Obama again