The Difference Between Campaign Rhetoric and Reality
No one ever has or ever will run for president with the campaign slogan "Vote for me because I could do a slightly better job than the guy who's doing it now". To oust an incumbent president, you have to draw a sharp contrast between the terrible, horrible, awful job he's doing and the amazing job you would do. Anyone who's at all familiar with politics knows that, and expects the challenger to criticize the President at every level and to draw contrasts wherever possible.
The trouble with this game that we play every election is that many people start to actually believe the rhetoric and the posturing and to accept as fact some of the rather outlandish statements that are made. And yes, I do include in this the outlandish statements made by the incumbent to discredit the challenger.
Because one of the main attacks on the President's record was an indictment on how he handled the economy, a very strange situation developed wherein half the country was rooting for the economy to succeed and improve, while the other half was rooting for the economy to fail, or at least look like it was failing. When the unemployment numbers dropped to 7.8 percent in early October, the howling on the right was deafening. Early in the campaign, Governor Romney made the claim that "the President didn't cause the recession, but he made it worse". Since that's easily provable as false, he backed off that claim later in the election cycle, but continued to point out every negative statistic he could find about the economy and to paint the picture as bleak as he possibly could. The reality is that while the economy is far from being as robust and healthy as it needs to be, nearly every economic indicator has been showing signs of improvement for some time.
Now that the election is over, maybe it's time that we all started rooting for the economy to succeed again. Even if you thought and still think Governor Romney could have done a better job with it, he won't be in charge of it any time soon, so let's work with what we have.
Maybe the fact that the auto industry has bounced back so amazingly and remarkably can now be a source of pride for all Americans, and not just the half who voted for President Obama. As crucial as the bailout was in providing funds to stay alive when no private funds were available, the real success story is that hard work, innovation, and initiative on the part of executives and workers alike are what really saved the auto industry. The bailout allowed the industry to survive. It was up to the people in the industry to make it thrive.
My point is this: Expect claims made during a presidential campaign to be extreme and understand that their purpose is to draw a stark contrast between the challenger and the incumbent. Just realize that they are often overstated and sometimes just plain false. If you accept them as fact, your world view is very likely to be dangerously skewed.
The trouble with this game that we play every election is that many people start to actually believe the rhetoric and the posturing and to accept as fact some of the rather outlandish statements that are made. And yes, I do include in this the outlandish statements made by the incumbent to discredit the challenger.
Because one of the main attacks on the President's record was an indictment on how he handled the economy, a very strange situation developed wherein half the country was rooting for the economy to succeed and improve, while the other half was rooting for the economy to fail, or at least look like it was failing. When the unemployment numbers dropped to 7.8 percent in early October, the howling on the right was deafening. Early in the campaign, Governor Romney made the claim that "the President didn't cause the recession, but he made it worse". Since that's easily provable as false, he backed off that claim later in the election cycle, but continued to point out every negative statistic he could find about the economy and to paint the picture as bleak as he possibly could. The reality is that while the economy is far from being as robust and healthy as it needs to be, nearly every economic indicator has been showing signs of improvement for some time.
Now that the election is over, maybe it's time that we all started rooting for the economy to succeed again. Even if you thought and still think Governor Romney could have done a better job with it, he won't be in charge of it any time soon, so let's work with what we have.
Maybe the fact that the auto industry has bounced back so amazingly and remarkably can now be a source of pride for all Americans, and not just the half who voted for President Obama. As crucial as the bailout was in providing funds to stay alive when no private funds were available, the real success story is that hard work, innovation, and initiative on the part of executives and workers alike are what really saved the auto industry. The bailout allowed the industry to survive. It was up to the people in the industry to make it thrive.
My point is this: Expect claims made during a presidential campaign to be extreme and understand that their purpose is to draw a stark contrast between the challenger and the incumbent. Just realize that they are often overstated and sometimes just plain false. If you accept them as fact, your world view is very likely to be dangerously skewed.
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