There we go again. After nonstop headlines a year before Election Day and nine debates between the Republican candidates (number 10 is scheduled to take place on Wednesday in Michigan), Americans are already grumbling that the 2012 presidential campaign is ugly and interminable. But these quadrennial complaints about campaigning miss the point. Â Presidential campaigns are […]
Culture Warriors Donât Win
Mitt Romneyâs apparent nomination proves that Republican voters are more pragmatic and centrist than their reputation suggests. The Republican candidates this year fought a classic political battle. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul campaigned as purists, echoing Henry Clayâs famous expression from 1844, âIâd rather be right than president.â The realist Romney updated the […]
Not Set in Granite
Right now, while we indulge New Hampshireâs childish insistence on its presidential primary being âfirst in the nation,â Americans should decide to bury this tradition. Nearly a century is enough: the Granite State has somehow turned a fluke into an entitlement. Worse, its obsession with primacy prolongs, complicates and distorts the presidential nominating process. In […]
Can We Get Serious?
To select someone worthy of sitting in George Washingtonâs chair, sleeping in Abraham Lincolnâs bed and governing from Franklin Rooseveltâs desk, Americans crave a substantial presidential campaign, as long as they donât have to endure too many boring speeches. Like every human decision-making process, presidential campaigns seesaw between the serious and the silly.
