I suppose this article is about 6 months late in coming. But watching the outgoing George W. Bush and the incoming Barack Obama, it has become more and more clear to me that it is nearly impossible to get the measure of a man while he is campaigning. George W. Bush was one man before 9/11, and a completely different man after 9/11. Pre-9/11 GWB would have been horrified to see some of the abridgments of personal liberty and extreme extension of government power that Post-9/11 GWB embraced and now defends as the finest accomplishments of his presidency. Pre-9/11 GWB saw tax cuts and government reductions as job 1. Post-9/11 GWB saw tax cuts as an engine to drive the economy, to allow government expansions which was really job 1. Pre-9/11 GWB was focused on social themes - education, faith-based initiatives - while Post-9/11 GWB saw social themes as an afterthought.
But how was it possible to see a Post-9/11 GWB while Pre-9/11 GWB was running?
We see the same thing now. I am not a supporter of Barack Obama's policies (though I do see him as a man riding the wave of history, whose time has come) but during the campaign he ran on getting us out of Iraq ASAP. Now, he is talking about doing the draw-down in line with GWB policies - 16 months or more. Obama ran on "changing government" but is now hiring the only people qualified to fill his posts - Clinton and Bush officials who are anything BUT "change". Pre-election BO and post-election BO are turning out to be two different men.
So the question is, HOW DO WE REALLY CHOOSE A CANDIDATE? We have known since before Mark Twain that you can never trust what a politician says. Since the advent of television and special effects, we can't even trust what we see a politician looking like. Make-up, double-talk, and special effects can lie convincingly in our day and age as never before. So, how do we really get down to the core of a candidate and understand who he/she is and how s/he will govern?
I am open to your thoughts on the subject. I am struggling with my own now.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Process of Choosing a Candidate
Posted by Nomad at 1:00 AM
Labels: Election, howto, politics, presidentialcampaign
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4 comments:
I think it has to be a combination of voting record + reputation + where the party they're affiliated with is / is going. That being said, I don't think you can plan for how a president will change in the face of a 9/11 unless they've had to deal with a major disaster before.
Problem is, I don't think either of these were any help for either Bill Clinton or George W Bush. George H. W. Bush was fairly consistent between campaign/record and presidency. Both BC and GWB had nearly no relation between campaign/record and presidency... at least outside of the first 100 days.
Maybe you're right and I am simply unreasonable in expecting someone not to be significantly changed by an event like 9/11. But what changed Bill Clinton?
From what I've heard (my first presidential election was GWB's first term), it was the Democratic party. Thoughts/Concerns are that just like the Democratic party was in power and changed BC, they'll change BO.
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