2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Obama Campus Fervor Losing to Apathy as Students Sour on 2012 [View all]Iceberg Louie
(190 posts)Since the beginning of the 2008 election season, I have known a great number of people who run the gamut from "bleeding heart liberals" to self-professed staunch Republicans, who have lined up behind Paul for basically the same reasons. They all seem to agree with his core message of fiscal responsibility, but perhaps more so in that he is willing to expound on practical approaches to the specifics, as opposed to the lofty, stump-speech idealistic generalities we've become so accustomed to from our candidates. I feel that there is a large contingency out there who are rational enough to be able to set aside their ideological pie-in-the-sky dreams (on both sides) enough to concede that, within the scope of realistic expectations of the function of federal government, these are the areas that direly need the undivided attention of our elected officials. True that the Democrats have become far more of a centrist party since the days of Carter, but their media sales pitch is still "hope and progress" as counterpoint to the Republicans' "return to the good ol' days". This tends to leave little room for an appeal to logic for either party. I guess a structural review of the Department of Agriculture makes for less sellable copy than Tea Party v. Occupy Wall Street.
I also agree with the parallel you'd drawn to 2004, with Romney/Kerry being the unrelatable Massachusetts stiff going up against an incumbent who has failed to unite the parties contrary to his campaign pledges. I would add further that Ron Paul could be regarded as 2012's Dennis Kucinich, the candidate making too much sense for his party to support.