Diary of an undecided voter (GOP convention edition)
Summary: There are probably less than 10% of Americans who haven't decided on who to vote for in the November Presidential election. Yet, it's often the undecided voters, like ZDNet Government's own David Gewirtz, that eventually choose the winner. Here's David's review of the GOP convention.
Most Americans have already made up their minds who they're going to vote for. Some will just vote down party lines. Others have decided early on that they dislike President Obama or they dislike Mitt Romney and will vote for the other candidate.
See also: An undecided voter on President Obama's convention
But about ten percent of us have still not made up our minds. I'm not going to go into detail in this article why I'm still undecided, but the fact is, I'm disturbed by facets of both candidates and their parties and haven't yet determined who's the lesser of evils.
I'll probably write about those facets in another article, but for now, I'm kicking off a series of posts on how -- as an undecided voter -- I view the political events leading up to the election.
This week, the discussion is the GOP convention. Next week, it'll be the Democratic convention. Following that, in October, will be the debates.
So, let's get started. There were five speeches I was really interested in watching. I'll discuss them in the order they were presented to the public, starting with Ann Romney on Tuesday and ending up with Mitt Romney on Thursday.
Ann Romney
There's no doubt Ann Romney is a charming woman and would make a suitable First Lady. It does seem odd, though, this far into the 21st century, that we still trot the spouse of a candidate out into the glare of public lights to both testify to the goodness of the candidate and prove, somehow, that she's somehow motherly enough to be a First Lady.
In any case, Ann Romney fits the bill. She's a fine speaker. For a woman who has suffered a variety of severe medical ailments, she looks far younger than her 63 years.
And, testify she did. According to Ann, Mitt's a loving father and good husband. How could he be anything else? She gave a good speech, but I gained no deeper understanding of the man or his family, nor did it help sway my opinion in any way.
No mention was made of Seamus the dog or his 650-mile trip to Canada on the roof of the Romney's Chevy Caprice station wagon.
For the record, the dog was in a carrier, and the young Romneys had apparently installed some sort of wind barrier to protect the pooch. Frankly, with five kids (a 2-year old, 5-year old, 8-year old, 12-year old, and 13-year old) in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, I think the dog was probably much happier on the roof and away from the chaos.
My guess is that if he could, Mitt Romney himself would have prefered to trade places with the dog for that ride, just for a little peace and quiet. Are we there yet?
Next up: Condoleezza Rice and Paul Ryan
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Talkback
Why a station wagon?
Terri the Terrorist Terrier says "W00F!!" (No!)
Traditional minivans came later
You're undecided?!
David Korten: The Post Corporate World
That is from the prologue to David Korten's book "The Post Corporate World."
Capitalism is sucking every penny upwards into the hands of the obscenely wealthy. At this point in time Republicans are just tools for those wealthy to realize their ever increasing gains.
Do you still want to vote Republican? Remember the good old days when people like Rockefeller took their mega-wealth and actually put it to the public good? These days it seems like Bill Gates stands alone in that tradition. All the other mega-rich have found something better to do with their wealth: keep it. All of it.
Korten has a lot to say about capitalistic colonization globally
Also an inordinate amount of hi-tech mavericks are funders of the Democratic party. Just as many others are advocates for One World Order. You keep turning to stereotypical frameworks of the past, when increasingly they no longer apply (as they might have once upon a time).
As for Bill Gates, please stop with the post-MS sainthood proclamations. Here's a guy who ran roughshod over anybody and anything in his path for years, drove even the majority of his own inner circle away with his incessant bullwhip, and now - largely thanks to his Catholic wife (and lots of bridge with Buffett) - has morphed into the second coming of Mother Teresa.
That is, after stashing away more into private coffers than a Prince from antiquity could ever have hoped for. After all, he conquered the commercial world, arguably at his own country's expense. And like any Pied Piper worth their reed, other rats followed suit, quite eagerly. LOTS of them, lest they be left behind holding diminished bags. And all unchecked by our electors.
So now he's on a crusade to feed the world. Bravo Bill. Too bad he couldn't take his substantive intellect and business prowess and, in like manner, attempt to apply it more to the country that nurtured him and gave him a playing field in which to bloom. Shades of what the rest of our once "American," now multinational crusaders endeavor for. The world at the expense of their own.
And therein lies the problem. Politically, both the Reps AND Dems are afraid to do a thing about it, or see little reason to challenge the status quo. I wonder why? [think payroll-a instead of republicana]
Ahhh
No kidding. He probably
To be fair he'll mention Obama's eating dog next week
Unemployment relates to the demand for labour and can be high or low in economies with small and large populations.
As value is created in the private sector almost exclusively, look to party job creation policies to be targeted in that direction. Attempts by govt to create jobs will be short-term (must be funded from the productive sector). I suspect this policy deference will define the two sides.
Yeah!
I'd ask obamas childhood dog how it feels, but..he ate it
Don't recall who said it but better the roof of a station wagon
please
Listen to Ry Cooder
But, listen to ry cooders mutt romney blues at youtube watch?v=TW_hE1jZWgY
I thought the empty chair was a good representation.
I thought
Conventions are publicity stunts
I found myself looking at every speech about a policy position thinking, "What's in it for him?" In every case, it was obvious that he and/or his rich close friends were going to benefit financially from every single policy he has. He's won't be looking out for my best interests. He'll only be looking out for himself and his rich friends. All of the big corporations he and his buddies own stock in will benefit. He'll get bigger dividends. Reducing regulation and increasing tax breaks for the rich will benefit HIM, not us.
Eliminating financial access to education for the middle and lower classes will make it so only the rich can afford to educate their children. Uneducated voters are their best target audience. They're easy to manipulate using fear tactics. Long term, the rich will get richer and the poor will remain firmly under their direct control. As a registered republican, my own party makes me sick these days.
There needs to be a 'None Of The Above' option
I doubt any discernible difference would be glimpsed from what we get now.
Re "none of the above"
Achilles' heel
Seems there's always an unforeseen element in every new or promising initiative.
Back to the drawing board... *sigh*
Sadly...
Notice also the high bar to even placing a name in nomination at this year's convention, and that votes for Paul and Santorum were ignored by the secretary (even the 1972 Republican National Convention recorded Paul McCloskey's one vote).
This year's Republican National Convention was a combination rubber stamp and infomercial, so it's not surprising that the actual business of the convention got almost no attention, Sorry to say, I expect no better from the Democrats.