Well, they're both over – the conventions, that is. The GOP and the Dems have nominated their candidates. People used to say conventions were the most exciting thing in politics but I doubt if that's much believed anymore. For months you had a passel of primary candidates in your house ever night on TV and this year they nominated exactly the people we thought they would. Not too much excitement there.
Given the changing nature of the Republican Party, it's a very long time since the party of Lincoln was for freedom and against slavery; this year they're about something new. They keep talking about how awful the economy is. It seems to me, maybe just because I'm old and retired, that it has sometimes been worse than now, even though it has also certainly been better.
They, at least the more ideological Republicans, are seriously interested in cutting government spending, including programs we're used to. Replace Medicare with a voucher program? You'd get less money. Do the same for Social Security? Same result
I don't know how popular ideas like these are. If President Obama wins, he'll presumably veto them. The Republicans will have to control Congress--they control the House but not the Senate--to get any of this stuff even that far.
I saw one poll that suggested the race was pretty much a tie, but I don't think so. Seems to me the incumbent, President Obama, has the edge. He has the experience by now; he's ended one of our wars and may even get our troops out of Afghanistan, though that's never been easy for the colonizing country, not for Britain in the19th century, nor for the Soviets in the 20th, nor for us today
One thing I think will be very important--their debates. Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are two men with very different views of the world. Their debates ought to make those differences clear.
So it could be an interesting election after all.
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