Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Candidates' Sanity Pause

Predictably, the presidential campaigns have looked at the spaced-out face of the Aurora rampager and opted for a sanity pause in the madness of their mutual bashing. In the immortal words of Geraldo Rivera, “Anyone can fake being sincere for five minutes.”

After the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, even John Boehner and his Tea Party bullies toned down their rhetoric briefly before going back on the loony attack.

In a new TV ad described as “striking in its subdued tone and restraint,” Obama looks into the camera and explains that the election is “a choice between two very different plans for our country. Governor Romney's plan would cut taxes for the folks at the very top. Roll back regulations on big banks. And he says that if we do, our economy will grow and everyone will benefit. But you know what? We tried that top down approach. It's what caused the mess in the first place...

"Sometimes politics can seem very small. But the choice you face, it couldn't be bigger."

For his part, Romney is off for a week to Israel, England and Poland, with his advisers solemnly promising that he will avoid criticizing the President on foreign soil.

It’s comforting that murderous orange-haired lunacy can prompt such delicacy in high places, but it would be crazy to bet that it will last until August.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows voters overwhelmingly feel they know enough about Obama with only a minority wanting to hear more about Romney’s record as governor, his tenure at Bain and his tax returns.

The majority seems ready to vote now and skip the conventions and the debates. Before the SuperPAC money kicks in, are they just trying to preserve their own sanity?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is the difference between the two candidates the distance between knowing enough and wanting to know more? Is this our choice? Are we applying a tabloid standard to our candidates? The scandal free vs. the too soon to tell? Even revelations about Obama's "secretive years" as a single guy in NYC were decidely hohum with Obama appearing to be an earnest young man who could only be accused of "taking things too seriously" or what my mom would describe as taking things too much to heart. By contrast, Romney's refusal to submit his past tax returns hints at the proverbial shoe on the verge of dropping. We no longer seem capable of assessing what candidates stand for, only their potential for duplicity.

John said...

"We no longer seem capable of assessing what candidates stand for, only their potential for duplicity."

That tax evading "shoe" about to drop might say a lot about what Romney ultimately stands for.