Great American Journal

Presidential Campaigning Goes on Forever

By Marie Jon

I am becoming bored with all the presidential debates and campaigning long before the primaries. They have become elongated political visuals with little or no substance.

For the most part, the media is choosing the front running candidates, both within the Republican and Democrat Parties. Unfortunately, the most popular people will win the primaries, rather than those of substance. Too often, we aren't able to figure out what the candidates think.

YouTube and the television debates provide little or no information. The candidates continuously changed their positions more readily than chameleons change their color.

Shouldn't the people who serve in the legislative halls, as well as the White House be elected because of their vast and superior knowledge of the issues? Sadly, our elections have come down to charisma and names bandied about by the media most frequently. Voting for the presidential candidate should be the results of our search for wisdom. Will the people we elect protect and improve our nation during these delicate and tenuous times? This is the question we should be asking.

The War on Terror and Iraq are the most important foreign policy issues currently facing our nation. The security of our country depends on whom we chose to take charge of the White House and Congress.

In 1968, the Democrat National Convention changed the way our nominees were selected. Yes, it was the Democratic Party that decided back then that we needed a change. Our states began to adopt new rules, hoping to widen the participation of party members in the selection process. It has been bedlam ever since.

In the bygone days, professionals in both parties knew how to vet their candidates properly. They selected the best persons to run for the presidential office. The candidates emerged ready for prime time.

There are too many people participating in the selection process vying for the populous vote. However, often the very best do not run for office, as it means taking at least a full year out of one's life to do so. It has become absurd.

The candidates tell the people what they want to hear — these days, no matter how absurd. Good- looking and well-coiffed candidates rise to the top. Indeed, the presidential primary races are little more than sound bites of equivocating performances — expertly edited, looped and regurgitated by the media.

Is the candidate selection process better today than it was before the changes, before 1968 and Campaign Finance Reform? The United Kingdom does not take anything approaching as long to select candidates as we do in America. Maybe we should learn from them.

One question I ask is: What is all this nonsense about Fred Thompson's timing in entering the race? Compared to whose standards?

John F. Kennedy declared his intent to run for president of the United States on January 2, 1960. Bill Clinton stood outside the Old State House in Little Rock, Arkansas and announced his candidacy on October 3, 1991. I guess by today's topsy-turvy standards it would be considered getting into the game a little too late. However, it just may be that Thompson is temporally right on target.

Excerpts from FOXNEWS.COM HOME > Politics

"Thompson Tours Traditional Democratic Route in New Hampshire Visit"

By Carl Cameron

"Though Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson is running as the heir to Ronald Reagan's brand of conservatism, he made the rounds of symbolic Democratic strongholds in New Hampshire on Sunday.

"Thompson began his first visit to the Granite State as an official candidate Saturday evening with a single stop at a traditional GOP picnic at the Scammon farm in Stratham, then spent the night in the heavily Democratic seacoast city of Portsmouth.

"Thompson had no public events Sunday morning. His first appearance was in the heavily Democratic 'Queen City' of Manchester, the most populated city in New Hampshire.

"His first stop was at a diner called 'Chez Vachon,' one of the most identifiable haunts of the 1992 Clinton campaign. The restaurant is located on the intensely liberal French-Canadian "west side," where French accents are prevalent and labor union politics rule.

"Chez Vachon occasionally features Republican candidates — Arizona Sen. John McCain swung by earlier this year — but the voters are devout Democrats.

"Afterward, Thompson was to shake hands with football fans at a pair of sports bars in downtown Manchester before the New England Patriots game kicked off, then was wrapping his day in Nashua.

"Nashua, the 'Gate City' along the Massachusetts border, is yet another heavily Democratic town and City Hall is an essential stop on the Democratic campaign trail."

Link to Full Article

Whatever the case, something must be done to fast-forward our presidential campaigning process before Americans lapse into an apathetic trance. Who they'll vote for then is anyone's guess. Considering that, perhaps this "new style" of campaigning has adopted this modality by design.