Saturday, June 9, 2012

Running against crazy, Part 2

Sometimes I think the Democrat's main campaign point is "At least we're not as bad as those others." And it's not as though it isn't a valid point. If the electorate votes in a GOP president and a GOP Senate, we can't be sure we won't get a whole lot of crazy--additional tax cuts, no trimming of the military, and the bulk of cuts falling on discretionary spending, but less than promised since popular programs will be lightly effected. Also the dismantling of environmental regulations and financial regulations, with consequences to be suffered and discovered down the road. If a booming economy doesn't happen, the hole in the budget won't be pretty. So the GOP will have dismantled part of government, blown the budget again, and maybe set us up for another financial mess (though on a smaller scale).

So the Democrats have a point if they campaign (between the lines) on not being crazy. But it's not a strong enough message to get people to the polls... unless the GOP looks really crazy. That's one advantage of having Mitt Romney as the presidential candidate. He doesn't exude crazy like Bachmann did, or Newt. Maybe Republicans got the obvious crazy out of their system during 2011 and the primaries, and they'll be trying their hardest to look sane for the rest of the campaign season. But... ... they have to make it through their convention and their convention speakers. Perhaps there's some hope for the Dems in that.

Photo: zazzle.ca

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