With poll numbers and public opinion changing on a daily basis, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum strike like gladiators on a battlefield of debates and primaries. It is hard to keep up with what’s going on, especially when the candidates seem more concerned with exposing their rivals’ weaknesses than discussing the real issues and objectives of their campaigns.
The debates may look like a fun fair to the untrained eye. So many of the pursuers for the nomination make elaborate and vague sentences designed to confuse the listener.
First of all, these are the Republican candidates. All of their views are encompassed on the conservative spectrum of politics; one can find that the candidates agree in a lot of the issues. They differ, however, on the methods and procedures the government should take to get there.
Mitt Romney, a man who, as reported by CNN, has spent almost as much of his own money as his rivals combined, tries connecting with people by saying that his wealth should be an inspiration of hard work. However, his personal wealth is one of the largest barriers between him and middle class voters. Pretending to be an average Joe, he intends to get the Republican nomination by appealing to the undecided. Romney swings with the tide, changing his stance every time it benefits him, adapting to the situation, this way he hopes to get a better scope of voters. Truth is, this makes him look more like a flip-flopper than a skillful contender.
Rick Santorum, in Jon Stewart’s words, is “The man Romney is pretending to be.” Santorum is a hardcore conservative, settled at the far right of the political spectrum. He promotes all the values that extreme social conservatives hold dear and sacred, though his openness about social issues is not very well received by more moderate Republicans.
By remaining strong on his values he intended to capture more Republican voters and “outnumber” Romney. He was the strong-minded one, but when polls and debates started looking bad he stepped back and ceased expressing his opinions as strongly, thus letting go of the thing that set him apart.
Newt Gingrich is philosophically positioned between Romney and Santorum, as far as ideals go. He’s hoping that by remaining moderate on his opinions, he’ll manage to win the vote of the moderate and a fair share of the more liberal and more conservative voters. His campaign suffered for his personal choices and his popularity went down after the December 2011 scandal regarding his marriage. The fact is, he comes across weak, not only on the political field, but also on his personal battles.
The only exception may be Ron Paul, whose policy of shutting down the Department of Education makes him radical. He seems to be neither here nor there and he disagrees with the other candidates almost on everything. Although he stands separately as the only different candidate, he has not made a good impression during the debates, succeeding only in enabling Romney. He’s the candidate that hopes to get everyone else’s vote.
According to the Website Real Clear Politics, –which picks up polls from different websites to compare them– of all the candidates, the one that polls higher against Barack Obama is Romney. Following the Michigan primary, everything looks like he will be the Republican presidential candidate. Santorum, who had stayed under the radar, is coming in strongly and might make a big difference on the upcoming primaries if he manages to escape his fellow runners’ attacks on the debates.
Some speculate that this question of the republican candidate choice is all going to be hashed out on the Republican Convention that is to be held in Tampa Bay, Florida in August. A name that hovers on the political skyline like a stray feather floating in the wind is Sarah Plain’s. With no clear statement to declare whether she’ll respond to this draft call to be the strong and powerful candidate only she believes she can be. The question remains, if this maverick will be the hope for the Republicans who’re not convinced by the other candidates, or if she’ll stay in Alaska keeping an eye on Russia for us.
(Article written for The Habit -Dominican University of California student paper-)
-C.R.A.
