Obama in 2012

President Obama announced yesterday that he will be seeking reelection. This is totally expected and most feel that Obama will be reelected. I am not so sure. The Republican candidates for President - this might be the most important factor for Obams - appear to be a very unexciting group.

The candidates with the most name power are also those that are the most polarizing. Sarah Palin appears to have reached the conclusion that she likes cashing checks more than she does the idea of running for President. Pawlenty, Bachman, Barbour, Gulliani and others might run but is hard to think of any moderates, independents primarily voting for them.

Of course the election is really a question of the electoral map. With Republicans winning many state houses across the Midwest, in states Obama did win and needs to win again one can see a path to victory for a Republican. The sense is however that no credible candidate has surfaced unless one thinks Mitt Romney could win. Perhaps he could. Romney's identity as a merger and acquisition shark, his running away from hos own version of Obamacare, his many flip flops make him to me a candidate that will self destruct.

Were another Democrat available I would run to them. I am sorely disappointed in Obama. This Republican field however offers no hope to those seeking a moderate. Until a moderate Republican breaks with the union bashing, defense industry,kowtowing health insurance lobbying, and tax cuts for the rich mantra then it just seems that no Democrat could abandon Obama.


I cannot. I would love another candidate. But as it stands now it looks like we have to stay with the President and hope that somewhere he remembers what he stood for. Perhaps it is a sad reflection on our system that so many Democrats feel that there will be no candidate worth being excited about until 2016. A candidate that engendered such hope and excitement reduced in two years to a boring, ineffectual, conservative and timid President. This is perhaps the saddest thing about the upcoming election cycle.

Things can change. The world does everyday. For now however one sees a bleak horizon.