Art of the Union

So this is it, huh? This is the best they’ve got to offer. The Republican presidential field has settled itself more in the category of future trivia question answers than future history book segments. One would think that with how vehemently Congressional Republicans have opposed President Obama they would make a more serious effort to capture disenfranchised liberals such as myself. Nope. With the likes of Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie announcing that they will not seek nomination to numerous let down Republicans, and Sarah Palin announcing she will not seek nomination to the 3 housewives who still have her bumper sticker, the race seems set in stone. They have offered up a group of alternate-reality living misfits, headed by the perennial loser Mitt Romney. Considering that this race is a case of not the living vs. the dead but rather the slightly less dead vs. the dead, Romney should be trouncing the competition. So why isn’t he?

His competition is just down-the-line awful. Full of 10-second sound bites and flirtations with obscurity. Herman Cain is a conservative extremist with a fond love for pizza, the best corporate yes-man the world has ever seen. A man whose own staff members have said is not serious about running a campaign. Rick Perry speaks with the grace of a tired snail, the job creator who has mostly created jobs that are either low paying with no benefits or in the public sector funded by taxes. Michele Bachmann proved to be a flash of mascara in the pan. Rick Santorum is either running for president or the most successful absurdist ever. Ron Paul has a very adamant base whose idea of campaigning mostly resembles verbal assault, but to the other 70% of America he is known as “That one guy.” Jon Huntsman’s campaign is crumbling because he spent too much time pushing his “Did I mention I ride a Harley” bill and not enough time calling the President a socialist. And of course there is Newt Gingrich whose Foreign Policy would probably boil down to cheating on China by sleeping with India.

With all of this taken into account Romney should be leaving his competitors in the dust, but in reality he seems to be replaced as the leader of the polls on a bi-weekly basis before retaking the lead by a few percent points. If he is not playing tug-of-war for first he is reading headlines about speculation of new candidates. It’s not like he has not had a successful past. Mitt co-founded Bain Capital, he served as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee in a successful bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, the man was even elected Governor of Massachusetts. But when it comes to running for President of the United States, Americans have already seen him and Americans have already turned him down. In the 2008 presidential election he was a constant second best to Mike Huckabee or John McCain. It’s 4 years later and the opinion hasn’t changed, rather the field has weakened.

In a time where the country is fed up with endless wars, militarism, and American interventionism Romney promises to increase the defense budget and implement bully stances on countries like Iran.  In a time where Americans are taking to the streets to oppose corporate greed, Romney leads the pack in campaign contributions from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase. When a poll shows 81% of citizens are dissatisfied with the direction of the federal government, craving direction and leadership, Romney has proved to be an unreliable flip-flopper. First for TARP, now against it. Was pro-choice, now pro-life. If Mitt’s religious affiliations changed as much as his politics did, Robert Jeffress comment that “Mormonism is a cult” should not have phased him much because he’s probably only been a Mormon since 1996. He is the candidate who knows how to create jobs but as Governor of Massachusetts ranked only 47^th amongst states in creating employment.

Mitt should not be heading the polls, but due to his opponents who are based in extremism and minority appeal he is seen as a lesser of evils. Whether it be Perry, Cain, or the now speculated Gingrich who takes his place, it seems that as sure as the sun rises Mitt will regain the lead. Everything about Romney is wrong, just fortunately for him it’s more right than his opponents.