I feel like it is time for a political update. The difficulty I am having in mobilizing Quinnipiac students on a very small scale for local campaigns kind of shows the attitude on campus. So here is my digestable take on the 2012 Republican nomination process.
Now that Nevada has moved their contest date from January 14 to February 4, New Hampshire can now hold theirs on January 10 as opposed to in December. Iowa will be first in the national on January 3. The whole ordeal, with Flordia jumping up in the calender to begin all of this maddness, goes to show the asinine nature of the primary process.
The whole process unfairly places emphasis on the voters of Hew Hampshire and Iowa, who love to soak in the political attention. Not to mention the local business that love the influx of dollars into their state.
The 2012 process is now between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. Rick Perry will do well in Iowa, so New Hampshire happening after Iowa is good for Perry. If New Hampshire came first, Romney would win it going away. Not only would Perry lose, he would get annihilated and finish behind Ron Paul (who is my preferred GOP candidate) and possibly Herman Cain. Currently, Romney is polling at 38 percent in the Granite State, with Cain at 20 percent, Paul at 13 percent, and Perry at less than 5 percent.
Wayne McDonald, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Committee claims, “the New Hampshire primary is important not just as a long standing tradition, but as an opportunity for lesser-funded or lesser-known candidates to have the opportunity to be heard.” Okay, Wayne McDonald. So the established and well funded Romney is dominating. Republicans can only ever find terrible things to say about him. Nobody likes him. He is going to win. You are wrong, Mr. Chairman.
There are going to be more Republican debates than there are NBA games, and after it all Mitt Romney is going to win the nomination in spite of the Republicans apparently not being able to stand him.
Romney has a fine tuned machine, even allowing campaign volunteers to log into the campaign’s site and make phone callas away from their office. They have signs in every neighborhood in Manchester and Nashua. It is not their first rodeo.
Rick Perry looks more ridiculous with every debate in which he attempts to speak. He has little structure in New Hampshire, just ask any of my two friends who went to work on his campaign with our political science class.
Ron Paul is struggling to get people motivated to work for him. They apparently were burnt out on the 2008 campaign, according to Shaun Bowen the Hillsborough County, New Hampshire coordinator for the Ron Paul Campaign.
Michelle Bachmann us focusing on Iowa and she cannot poll above 5 percent there. Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich all are not worth my time to even talk about.
Herman Cain is where it gets interesting. His 9-9-9 plan is catchy … and easily picked apart by anybody with an economic background.
In the end, it is Romney. It always was Romney. All of this hullabaloo is interesting media fodder and it gives me something to talk about on a daily basis, but it almost all seems moot.
To me, government is serious and politics are fun. I cannot stand Jersey Shore, so I watch Rachel Maddow and John Stewart for my entertainment.
Just do me a favor and vote. Quinnipiac University students could handpick the Mayor of Hamden every year if we were mobilized effectively. University students at large could have a real impact on Presidential politics if we simply gave a damn.
