BloggeRhythms 10/10/2012

Pondering the huge gains accredited to Mitt Romney by many pollsters, I‘m not truly surprised. Because it’s been my expectation for a very long time now that he’ll win the upcoming election.

 

And although the experts are attributing Romney’s debate performance as the primary reason, I think the cause is much deeper than simply that. Because regardless of all the attention given to polling, I believe voter’s decisions rest far more on personal issues than anything else. And that reminded me of former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill who coined the phrase "All politics is local."

 

According to Wikipedia, O'Neill's phrase “encapsulates the principle that a politician's success is directly tied to his ability to understand and influence the issues of his constituents.”

 

And that, “The concept is contrary to the notion that most people, somehow, in local elections are casting votes to "send a message" to the highest levels; instead, the principle predicts that most people will not vote for local politicians simply as a means to act on feelings about higher politicians, such as concerns about a current U.S. President. The prediction is that most people who vote, or debate issues, are focused on resolving their local issues.”

 

However, O’Neill coined his words a very long time ago, in an age without technology permitting folks everywhere to receive instantaneous inputs about every level of government 24/7/366. So, in that regard, and using O’Neill’s phrase as the basis, I think that today all politics are local to everyone all the time.

 

Consequently, people can now see, assimilate and analyze considerable information from myriad sources and evaluate for themselves as to which candidates are most likely to satisfy their wishes and needs, local or not. And that’s why I think the coming election will ultimately be decided upon by the comparison of the two presidential candidates past performance and the proven results of their efforts in total, and not simply  a war of only words.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios