On the Republican side it's down to who is the"real" conservative between McCain and Romney as Huckabee and Guiliani are likely both done after Tuesday night. Now the Republicans face the same electability issue as the Dems...pick the wrong candidate and lose:
For example: Hillary's negatives are huge (53% of voters hold a negative view of her) and Romney's negs are well into the 30% range. Voters don't like Romney's religion and it shows.
National polls are now showing McCain beating Clinton but not Obama. They also show Clinton and Obama beating Romney. Polls show Hillary in serious trouble in a national election and show Romney potentially dead on arrival to a national election. Yet those are the two leading in the delgate counts thus far! Does this make any sense?
So why is it that both parties appear to be willing to pick a percieved loser? This election may become one of the wildest in decades and the prevailing political winds may not hold true. Just a few months ago--this was a done deal for Democrats...whatever happened?
I would encourage all of you to stay current on the race as there may be implications which might spill over into other issues. Especially try to understand how the economic downturn might actually be helping Republicans.
Take advantage of the opportunity to understand this election. It will be the only Presidential election in your high school debate career!
Those of you who can impact the election issues into your debate topics and extemp speeches will be looking pretty good with judges.
Read daily!!!! This could be one for the history books! Will this be the modern election that is decided by the House of Representatives? It has happened before--not once, but twice, anyone check out the similarities of those elections to this one?
4 times the electoral college decided the race by giving the win to a candidate who didn't win the popular vote (Al Gore was one of those victoms). Thats six US Elections out of 44 that didn't go the way of the people's vote. Once a state didn't even hold a Presidential election but appointed it's electors and that decided an election against popular vote!
Not only will staying current on the race help your knowledge and debate skills, a good reading of US election history will help you put things in perspective.
With both parties flirting with a potential death wish this fall, could Bloomberg enter this race and actually win? Does Ron Paul break from the Republican Party and run as a Libertarian and inflict huge damage to Republicans? Will both parties go to convention without a clear winner? Do Clinton and Obama kiss and make up?
This could be the amazing election of modern history! Happy reading!
Coach Harry
