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Sep 24, 2012

Upcoming debates: Predictions

The presidential debates are coming up. I have a few ideas as to what will happen. Let's see how it works.

The overall strategy for the Romney/Ryan ticket will start by the old stand-by of focusing on the economy and raising people's overall fears about the general state of horribleness in society. They will possibly pull out some actual "facts" (whether they are true or not) about how this is all the fault of Obama directly. They will then attempt to capitalize on the fear of the audience and gain votes to cover their gap by using the standby return-to-the-Christian-era-that-never-actually-happened tactic.



Instead of rocking the lob-ball that will be sent from Romney/Ryan out of the park regarding the economy, Obama/Biden will NOT actually remind the US constituency that most of the current economic crisis is actually due to Republican tactics in the 2000's. Instead they will try to pull out some actual "facts" (my prediction: on average, will be more true than the "facts" of the Romney/Ryan ticket) about recovery in specific instances. Some keywords: Detroit, Detroit, Detroit. Maybe they'll cherry-pick some volunteers in battleground states who have heartwarming stories about how the Obama administration saved their house/family/love/life/limb/soul/etc. To counteract some claims that the Obama/Biden presidency in 2013 will actually signal The Apocalypse and 1000 years of darkness (Obama/Biden 2009 apparently merely being Satan's Try-Outs), there will be some mealy-mouthed references to Christianity to emphasize how Jesus-like they really are.

However, all of that is still par to the course of the campaign so far, and nothing new. What I think will change the tone is some specific special-interest questions which, if the Obama/Biden campaign is on their toes, could actually win the election for them. The recent activities from Romney/Ryan and their buddies to completely marginalize most of the US population (with 51% of them being women) could, if played correctly, be a strong point in favor of Obama/Biden. This was indeed brought up by satellite campaign sources (see Sandra Fluke at the DNC), but it hasn't really taken center stage for Obama/Biden yet. The reason for that is simple, I think. The abortion issue is still sticky for many people, but fortunately for them, it's really become clear that for Romney/Ryan and the rest of their buddies, it's not REALLY about abortion at all. It's about women, and their views of women. Specifically, that women are chattel and have no standing whatsoever to decide anything for themselves or their health care. They're living, breathing incubators of souls (that, immediately after birth, are completely irrelevant also). It really isn't about saving souls in petri dishes. It's about keeping women "where they belong" in a "Christian society". This message is easy to defeat, whereas the abortion issue where it manifests, is not.

Let's see where the chips fall.

1 comment:

Staid Winnow said...

I expect Biden to talk about sex.