Now that the Presidential election is gearing up I hear many on the
republican side promoting the idea of A.B.O. - Anyone But Obama. While
the removal of President Obama from the Oval Office is a worthy goal, I
don't believe this is a strategy for success. The President poll
numbers remain alarmingly high despite the passage of a largely
unpopular health care reform law and persistently high unemployment. It
is true that historic precedent suggests that a President serving
during a time with unemployment numbers this high most likely will not
be re-elected, the outcome of this election is by no mean certain. Not
only will President Obama most likely have a large advantage in campaign
funds, he will also have a national media on his side that long ago
abandoned any pretense of objectivity. The only way to overcome these
two obstacles is with voter enthusiasm and A.B.O. will not get us to
this point. If the republican party nominates a candidate about whom
the voters feel no enthusiasm Barack Obama may very well win in November
of 2012 despite the state of the economy. During the election of 1980,
the incumbent, President Carter also was hampered by a bad economy.
Yet, he led Ronald Reagan in the polls until a few weeks before the
election. It was not until the last debate when Governor Reagan gave
the people something and someone to vote for that Reagan went from
trailing in the polls to a
landslide victory. Voting against Obama is not enough to win in 2012. We need a candidate and ideas that we can vote for.