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Presidential Race: My prediction... the winner will be...

So the Presidential election is only a couple days away now. All the campaigning has essentially been done and all that's left is for Americans to vote.

Right now it appears to be about as close a race as it could be. Some polls have Romney up a couple points, others have Obama up a couple points. Some pundits argue Obama has locked in the electoral college. Others argue Romney has locked in the popular vote.

So here is my official prediction, based purely on PR, as to who will be the next President.

The winner will be..... I don't know.

I know, what a let down eh?

But based on the campaigns each candidate has run, it's truly impossible to know who will win. Both have run pretty bad campaigns.

While Romney tried to chop his food off with a kitchen knife early in the race, he later recovered and has held that recovery.

While Obama has failed to deliver on most of his 2008 promises and blames the economy on Republicans and George W Bush (showing a marked lack of leadership and accountability for his time in office) he's also successfully pushed a fear-based message that as bad as things have been with him, they will be even worse with Romney.

When the public's choice is between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, or the lesser of two evils, it's very hard to predict which way people will vote.

Those that care most about the economy and a balanced budget will probably vote Romney.

Those that care about entitlements and government assistance will probably vote Obama.

Those that want sane, effective government not beholden to special interest groups and which upholds the constitution and rule of law.... sorry, we've got no one for you to vote for this year.

While I can't confidently predict who will be the next president (although if you put a gun to my head I think Romney will win), here is what I will actually predict though:

  • Extremely low voter turn-out (perhaps lowest ever)
  • No matter who wins the next four years are going to be ugly
  • No matter who wins the government will continue to be a partisan place that represents special interest NOT the citizenry as a whole
  • No one responsible for this economic mess will ever be held accountable by either Obama or Romney
 The Final Ads

Both campaigns have released a ton of ads in the final week of this campaign.  None of them are very good unfortunately, although I'd give the edge to Romney in that his (ironically) are more about hope than Obama's ads are. Here's a few:

Obama Faith

ugh... this video makes me queasy. I don't know how you can promote yourself as "deeply religious' while at the same time authorizing drone strikes that by their very nature increase collateral damage (ie. kill more women and children and non-combatants than ground warfare would).

I'm not saying drone strikes aren't the way to go, just that it's a ruthless non-Christian strategy towards defeating your enemy (the irony being that the other 'deeply religious' candidate, Romney, is fine with increased collateral damage as well).



Romney Administration's 100th Day

A cheesy fictional news report of what America would be like under Romney. It's a creative idea, but poorly executed in the sense that after about 15 seconds you want to stop watching it's so boring.


Romney's a Liar

The only problem with knocking Romney for being dishonest is that people assume that ALL politicians are dishonest. So while this may knock Romney, it doesn't elevate Obama in any way.


Romney's Leadership Ad

Geez, this ad sounds like Obama circa 2008. America will lead the world again if we just have 'leadership'.... ummm, if you say so (not like we need accountability or rule of law or a strong middle class... just leadership will do it).


Love of Country

Romney asking folks to vote for Love of Country. Once again, this is like saying "Don't eat the steak because you are hungry, eat the steak because it tastes amazing." Ummm..... OK, not really sure that's a reason to vote for you though.



More than a number

Now this ad I actually thought was good. It was about actual people. The ad shows that the Romney campaign gets real people's struggles (now whether they actually care about them is another question, but that's not the focus of the ad).



So as you can see, all these ads basically come down to the message "The other guy sucks!"

Except I'll give Romney's ads an edge because at least they also say "...and I'll do better."


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