I have already voted. I voted last Thursday, thanks to a two week early voting period in Wisconsin. I was very happy about this because my recent move made it so that I had to re-register and I wasn’t particularly fond of doing this in the election day hassle. My point is, I am no longer influenced at all by what is going on the election, my work is done. However, I thought I’d share my opinions on this election.
1) Republicans had a shot with me. When Romney made statements talking about how Obama hasn’t made the change he promised, I’m actually one who perked his ears and agreed. I’ve been very disappointed with Obama considering the promises that he made in 2008. The problem was, that was the extent at which Romney tried to grab me. He was right that Obama didn’t live up to his promise, but he didn’t offer any other options. So Obama got my vote. Instead he ignored the people he was pleading with for a vote and instead tried to appease the Tea Party. I’m sorry, you are really going to make that statement, ignore me and then make statements to appease the whack jobs of the country? No thank you, Mitt.
2) Related to #1… I wish John McCain had run again. I really liked McCain and even said to people that if it wasn’t for Barack Obama, I would have voted for him. Well assuming he didn’t have Sarah Palin as a running mate. I’d assume he wouldn’t make that mistake again. Now that Obama fell out of favor, I really would have. Why don’t parties allow guys to run twice anyway? I know statistically speaking the chances are low if you couldn’t beat the guy the first time. However, when has the last time that this actually happened to allow statistics to count?
3) I think it is ironic that Republicans made a big deal in 2004 about the flip-flopping of John Kerry and don’t seem to mind Mitt Romney doing it. This happens a lot with both parties but it is still weird seeing such blatant hypocrisy. I mean really, Romney makes Kerry look like a stubborn mule about his opinions. Kerry changed his opinions because he was a really intelligent man and actually sat and thought about what he was saying. As far as I can tell, Romney makes opinions dependent on others telling him what his opinion really is. You tell me which is worse, I would I rather it be someone who makes up their own mind but then Republicans don’t seem to like people who think for themselves.
4) Really? Paul Ryan? WTF? This guy, along with Scott Walker, is bringing Wisconsin back to a Joe McCarthy time for representatives and it makes me sad that we elect him somehow. And yet, despite being an utter crack pot AND despite his own guys telling him not to, Romney picks him for VP? Well I guess he made up his own mind on something, but it makes me want to retract my previous statement because if you are this stupid Mitten Romney, I guess I’d rather others just make your decisions for you.
5) There is an appeal in my mind of having the electorate tie and Mitt Romney being president with Joe Biden being Vice President. You get two un-charismatic politicians sticking their foots in their mouths constantly and making themselves and the country looking bad. They’d constantly be at each other’s throats which would make for an interesting 4 years. This really is the premise of a good sitcom and it would be funny to watch. I think it would be terrible for the country as a whole and would probably lead to changes in how ties are broken. Not to worry, the chances of this actually happening are astronomically small even in a close race. My bet is that if one of the electors saw it going to a tie, that they would go faithless just to break the tie.
6) The possibility of another 2000 race where Obama wins the electorate but not the popular vote is there. I don’t think it’s going to happen at all, but it is definitely there. The fact that Romney is making last ditch efforts in Pennsylvania tells you that Romney is looking for other electors to win because he is losing by too much elsewhere. That it could happen twice in 20 years and the country is becoming more polarized every year tells me that we should probably change how the country elects a president. After all, the electorate was created as a means to allow people to get the popular vote because this was before telephone and telegraph, let alone internet. Steve Israel from NY proposed giving the popular vote winner bonus elector votes which I think is a pretty decent idea. I think it needs to be tweaked on how. The two suggestions I have is to either make the point total equal the greatest votes any state has (Currently 55 for California) or have a sliding scale based on margin of victory on popular vote. At the very least I wish more states went the route of Nebraska and Maine and split their votes based on how people in the state voted.
7) Poor Puerto Rico doesn’t get any national coverage on its election this week, but it’s a biggy and could have political repercussions on our political system. Puerto Rico will be voting to become a state or become a more independent country this week. This one has a bigger push to make a decision to either be a state or move independent. They’ve been suffering harshly from the current world recession and this could have a deciding factor in making a change. The vote doesn’t mean they will do one thing or another but both Romney and Obama have declared that they will support whatever decision comes from the vote and try to move it forward. It’s entirely possible that in 2016 or 2020 there will be 51 states in the union and Puerto Rico’s 6 or 7 electoral votes will be a pretty big deal. Nobody really knows at this point just where it’d go but my guess is that it would lean Democrat. Coverage of this vote is so low that I don’t even know how the polls are trending, just days before the vote. Good luck Puerto Rico!
8) The advertising this year is ridiculous and I say that every election, but this year it really was. I live in southern Wisconsin. Which means I am not only in a swing state for the presidency I’m also in a very close and heated senate race, and I am in range of Paul Ryan trying to get re-elected to congress whilst running for Vice President even though I can’t even vote on Ryan. [1. To be fair, his last election brought me a ton of ads as well.] Do you see the problem here? On average, I get between 4 and 6 campaign commercials in each ad block while watching television. I’d also count that we only get between 8 and 10 ads during each block. Which means more than half of all commercials are for these damn races. I turn on the news I hear about these ass holes. I turn on SNL I hear about them. I open a paper, turn on the internet. I am sick of everyone in this race and I want none of them to win but I feel that I need to vote for the lesser of two evils anyway. And yes, I am sorry to contribute.