Point/CounterPoint: Who will win the 2012 Presidential election?
Vincenzo Chimera, Copy Editor
May 8, 2012
Filed under Opinion
Romney will deliver in November
Vincezo Chimera
With the economic recovery continuing to move along at an anemic pace, Mitt Romney will convince voters that he should replace President Barack Obama in November. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the economy added only 115,000 jobs last month. This amounts to half the rate of job creation from the beginning of the year.
As a result, the upcoming election once again looks like a toss up, since the president cannot claim that a rampant recovery is finally underway. With the nominating process behind him, Romney can now focus on the general election and appeal to independent voters. Moreover, some of Obama’s main support is waning.
While the president still holds strong support among young voters, only six in ten are registered to vote according to a recent Gallup poll. Romney can also make gains amongst Hispanic voters. He remains quite unpopular with this group after taking a hardline stance on immigration during the primaries, but according to a recent PEW research poll six in ten Hispanic households reported someone out of work this past year. Romney has plenty of time to convince these voters that he offers the superior plan to boost economic growth.
Romney will channel these factors into electoral victories in November. Although the president looks strong in states totaling 247 electoral votes, Romney will overcome this deficit. Florida and Ohio remain up for grabs and a struggling economy can also allow Romney to gain a victory in Wisconsin and Colorado.
The key for Romney is to prove his case to these understandably frustrated voters. This president has spent this country into oblivion and has failed to produce serious long term pro growth policies. Romney understands how the economy works based on his time in the private sector and has governed from the center during his term as governor of Massachusetts. He will convince voters that he is the man for the job in November.
President Barack Obama will overcome his shrinking popularity percentages and emerge victorious in the 2012 election.
Max Grothman
Obama will become a two-term president for two main reasons. Firstly, the most frustrating thing for the American population is when nothing gets done at all, referred to as congressional gridlock. With the legislative acceptance of Obamacare, Americans saw change in the white house and a dramatic change at that. A change of party in the white house will almost assuredly reverse the decision and create a new reformation of healthcare altogether. Americans enjoy continuity in the white house as evidence by re-elections in three out of the last four incumbent presidential elections.
Secondly, the current economic conditions are far from ideal for the average working American. In a time like this, the candidate that assures the highest quality of life to the lower and middle classes is the one that will enjoy the most support. Obama extended unemployment benefits during his first term, something that most Republican counterparts were strongly opposed to. He flooded the economy with stimulus money during the heart of the recession and continued with lavish governmental spending on social and developmental programs. The lower and middle classes benefitted tremendously from these policies and in turn will show up in heavy numbers at the voting turnstiles in November.
Obama ran on the premise of change in his first campaign but naysayers criticize him for not bringing the change that he so charismatically promised. His second campaign will undoubtedly focus on staying the course. Despite the questionable results in the global economy, a large amount of Americans benefited from the policies enacted by our 44th president and will delay the electing of the 45th president until 2016.