It is the ‘mean season’ once again

Published 9:04 am Friday, January 13, 2012

Since the Democratic candidate for President in 2012 is established as Barack Obama, only the Republicans have primary candidates to consider. It has not been pretty to watch.

Ronald Reagan did his best to establish the 11th commandment of Republican politics: “Thou shalt not speak badly of your fellow Republican.” That rule has been violated so often in this early campaign season as do be declared dead forever.

Maybe it all started with the assumptive claim that no matter how many votes Ron Paul could attract, his opponents dismissed him as un-electable. He had a loyal following they would say, but his ideas are too far outside of the mainstream to ever be taken seriously.

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But Paul’s critics seriously misjudged the resonance of his thoughts on foreign policy with young people and even Tea Party supporters. Paul says we can save a lot of money by closing our military bases around the globe and bringing our troops home.

He advocates the immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. While all of this runs counter to traditional Republican “strong man” foreign policy history, it makes sense to many primary voters.

As it turns out, being taken for granted to be unelectable is the least of the insults tossed back and forth between the Republican presidential candidates.

When Newt Gingrich soared into the lead in election polls his fellow candidates mounted attacks from all points. The most effective and damaging came from the Romney Super Pac, a group who reportedly spend nearly $4 billion in Iowa to destroy Gingrich not only in Iowa, but forever.

The most memorable ad was one showing previous admissions by the ex-House Speaker of past mistakes. After showing viewers several instances of Gingrich acknowledging past mistakes, the commercial asked “Haven’t we had enough Gingrich mistakes?”

Gingrich’s fall in the polls followed the placement of the ads.

As it turns out Mr. Gingrich was not so passive as to let this attack go unnoticed or unattended. Gingrich’s own Super Pac received $5 million in funding from a single individual and that money is now being spent in South Carolina, where the presidential primary is being held next week.

The ads from the Gingrich Super Pac name Mitt Romney, the current leader in the polls, as a “vulture capitalist” from his years with Bain enterprises.

The charge is that Romney did not create jobs while at Bain, but rather destroyed jobs by prioritizing profit taking over job formation. The claims may be true, but the charge runs counter to a long held Republican notion of capitalism that profit is the primary reason for any economic activity.

If Bain acquired companies to draw out their financial resources and sell off the company, it is an established business practice and one long accepted within Republican circles.

While such an approach may not be seen by voters as a match to how Romney has described his role at Bain, it remains, whether named “vulture capitalism” or not, as acceptable practice in generating profit within conservative philosophy.

Certainly Herman Cain now knows just how personal campaign attacks can become. His possible misdeeds from the past earned his withdrawal from the campaign after leading in the polls.

How those charges came to light remains unclear, but there is nothing unclear about the price of entering the race for Mr. Cain.

Making a decision to run the President is a difficult decision for both the candidates and their families. We would all be better served if the campaigns remained criticisms of policy, not attacks on personalities.

The upcoming presidential race between the eventual Republican nominee and President Obama would be best for the American people if conducted on the issues. The current model in the Republican primaries is not serving us well.

 

Jim Crawford is retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.