The Ideal Campaign

So after the debate last night, I was talking with a friend and we both agreed that neither candidate really gave any specific details on what their plans are for the next four years. Neither candidate really answered any question straight-forward. But that is a politician's way, right? But it got me thinking, what would the ideal campaign look like? Well, let me tell you what I think:

I go back and forth on the amount of money that is spent on campaigns. On one hand, it is a ridiculous amount of money. There was one quote I saw on twitter that read: "Almost a billion dollars have been spent on campaign ads so far. It's a good thing our schools & roads are in great shape or I'd be mad." Which is true. I'm sure there are far better ways to be spending this money. On the other hand, the money that is spent on those campaigns and on the ads, do help with those businesses and gives them a boost. Maybe we need to find a happy middle ground. Maybe there should be a limit on how much money a campaign can spend. At least then, the campaigns would be on a more level ground with each other.

I also think there should be no Political Action Committees (PACs). Or if these need to exist, there need to be more rules and regulations in place so that these make sense. This seems simple enough, right?

Next, I believe there should be no negative campaign ads. What's the point? It's dirty, messy and most of the time full of lying. Can you imagine what campaign ads would be like if you couldn't be negative to the other candidate? What a nice change and a refreshing thought! Candidates should only be able to talk about themselves, their records and their plans in their campaign ads. That way everyone gets the same message with hopefully more truth than the negative ads. Don't tell me what's wrong with the other candidate - tell me why I should vote for you. What you have done. What you want to do. That's how I want to make my political decisions.

Which leads me to the next point: candidates should not be allowed to promise anything. Yup. No promises. Tell me what you've already accomplished. Tell me what you HOPE to get done during your term. Tell me how you plan to get those things that you want accomplished. 

Because here's the thing. The President is only one man (and hopefully someday a woman!). He can only do so much by himself. That's the beauty of our country, no one man has the full power. He must be doing things by the law of the constitution and most things he wants to get done, he'll need the help of Congress. So its unrealistic to even make promises because you're going to run into roadblocks along the way. But tell us how you plan to get things accomplished. Tell me how you plan to work with a bipartisan Congress. I would much rather have a president that has told me what he wants to accomplish and how he's trying rather than a president that makes empty promises on a campaign trail that he has no way of getting done. 

Plus, empty promises are something that people are going to come back and attack you on those promises. Something that's happening with President Obama right now. He promised to cut the deficit by half in his first term and he wasn't able to accomplish that. And now Republicans are attacking him on it. And fairly so. But he had said, I want to try to cut the deficit... and failed, he might not be getting as much backlash. 
The other thing that bothers me on this point is that people only point on the promises that Obama has failed at. He has been able to keep many of his promises and has gotten a lot accomplished during his first term. Don't believe me? Check out this website. He has kept about 38% of his promises versus the 17% of promises broken. Not too shabby. 

Well there you have it. My ideal campaign. I would have put something in there about not allowing politicians to lie about things... but let's be honest. Would that ever happen? I mean, I don't want to put the fact-checkers out of work! 
So, think I'm living in a fantasy land? Well hey, a girl can dream, right?

Debates & Such

Yeah, so it's been a while. I've been a little busy... But I have been paying attention to the election. It's been hard not to. :)

The first debate was a couple of weeks ago. It was out in Denver, Colorado at the University of Denver. As fate had it, I was out in Denver for the debate night for a conference! Unfortunately, the debate wasn't open the public so I couldn't even try to go. It was a strange feeling to watch the debate knowing it was taking place literally just down the road! :) I also watched the debate at a pub full of people - the first time I've ever done something like that. And it was surprisingly quiet, so I could actually hear the debate! And not a lot of crowd reaction either, that was a little bit surprising.

For the debate itself: Mitt was rehearsed. He had his bullet points and he hit them hard. I give him credit that he was well-prepared. Doesn't change the fact I didn't like or agree with what he was saying... President Obama was disappointingly distant. He wasn't nearly as active as he should have been and wasn't make very clear points. However, none of this changed my mind on either candidate.

Last week, we had the Vice President Debates. If I'm going to completely honest here, when Romney first announced Paul Ryan has his running mate and after listening to him at the RNC (not that I agreed with him on ANYTHING!), I thought he would do much better in the VP debate than Biden. However, I was proven wrong! And thank goodness! Now, I will admit that there were times when I thought Biden was being a little bit of a ... prick. A lot of laughing and smirking. I read on facebook that someone thought he was laughing because he was scared, scared of what would happen under a Romney/Ryan administration! Ha! But after every laugh or smirk from Biden, he followed up with the hard cold facts! He was fact-checking on the spot and knocking Ryan down! It was an entertaining debate, at the very least!

Tonight was the second Presidential debate and I feel like it's been far more entertaining than the first one. This debate is also a town hall setting which is always more interesting. There were a couple times where I thought a fist fight was going to break out! Both men showed up to this debate but definitely President Obama. He was energetic and lively and was hitting some good points. He probably could have done better and really fired back at Romney on some of the things he said, but maybe next time. Romney on the other hand, wasn't as well prepared as last time, at least in my opinion. He said some things that will definitely be held against him in the future.
For me, I think President Obama definitely won this debate.

Another thing I just want to mention is that it's been really hard for me not to comment on some people's statuses on facebook and such. I'm all about having an open mind and allowing everyone to have their own opinion. What I don't like is people who are posting things and have no idea what they're talking about or nothing to back up what they're saying. This is frustrating. If you're going to have an opinion, do the research to back it up first.

And finally, the marriage amendment in Minnesota. I've been reading and seeing a lot of different things for this and I'm very nervous for my home state. I'm worried that Minnesotans are going to vote yes on this. I'm worried it's going to pass. And this is not okay. I don't care what your personal thoughts on gay marriages are, it is not our place to judge them and deny them their basic human rights! I have NEVER heard a logical argument for why someone is against gay marriage. If it's against your beliefs - that's fine! No one is forcing you to have a gay marriage! A gay marriage is not going to affect you or your marriage in any way! If you think you have a logical argument against gay marriage, I'd love to hear it. If not, vote no. It's that simple. This is a very personal issue for me and one I feel very strongly about. I pray that the people in Minnesota do the right thing and show the rest of the nation their "Minnesota Nice". 

Well, that's about it for now! I did already send in my ballot so I've officially voted! It's actually pretty ironic... I was scheduling my high school visits and I was trying to make sure I scheduled some fairly close to home on election day so that I would have time to come back and vote. That SAME night, a volunteer showed up at our door and asked if we wanted to sign up for early voting! Yes, please! So we got our ballots sent to us and we have both sent them back. I feel confident in my vote and I look forward to Election Night! :)