Tuesday, November 6th is Election Day. That is the day everyone is a political pundit, having an opinion on everything from the current wars to Medicare reform.
So, this week, I’d like to take a look at the final debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, as well as get a general idea of how they were tracking in the final week. We’ll also get a glimpse of the first of three debates just held between the third party presidential nominees.
Although there was no firm agreement among politicos as to who won the main debate (as there seemed to be in the first two), the candidates each presented strong performances in this third and final contest.
Whereas President Obama was poised for the fight and on the offense for most of the time, Governor Romney did his best to find common ground between them, even while attacking the president for his foreign policy, accusing him of allowing Iran to come closer to acquiring nuclear weapons. He also stated that our nation currently has fewer ships than we did in 1916. The president responded with the line of the night, telling his main challenger that we also have “fewer horses and bayonets” than we did at that time as well, due to the changing nature of warfare. That, of course, ignited a storm on controversy on the World Wide Web over the actual number of bayonets used, if they are actually useful or not, and possible uses for bayonets apart from the obvious. The last formal U.S.-led bayonet charge was in 1951.
Although neither Obama nor Romney was able to deliver a knockout blow to his opponent, the President did look more presidential in this performance from Boca Raton. Mitt Romney appeared, at times, sheepish.
Therefore, I’m declaring Barack Obama the winner of the last match-up.
Romney took the first debate hands-down. The president won the second debate by a good margin and squeaked out a win this week. That means the president is on the upswing as we head into today’s contest. Once again, the winner is the president and the loser is Mitt Romney. But the actual results of the election could change that quickly.
Another lesser-known debate was held this week, between Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico for the Libertarians, Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party and the Constitution Party’s Virgil Goode. Online voting after the debate gave the win to Gary Johnson, with Jill Stein taking second place. That advanced them to last night’s debate on November 5th. Both are dual winners of the week for smaller parties.
If there is one real winner through this and every election, it is the American people. As much as we complain about government and how votes don’t really count in non-swing states, we are lucky to at least have a voice. Make use of it. Go out and vote.
(White House photo)
Here in Crab Apple Cove, Maine, we tend to vote Republican. I, being of sound mind and body, view this to be a mistake this time around. The last ‘pub president was a disaster to the US economy, to world politics, and to peace in general. I don’t like the tax-and-spend philosophy of the left, but the idealism of the right forces me to go against the grain by continuing to support the current president.
I am entertaining the idea of the 3rd party vote to show my support of the Libertarians.
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The chances that one vote will make a difference between the big two is pretty small.
But, both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are doing their best to get 5% of the vote, which would make the Libertarians and/or Greens a major party in 2016, as well as open up $100 million in federal funding for the next election for them.
So, the question is if you want a smaller part of being on the winning team or to play a larger part in creating a new paradigm for 2016.