When I look at this country, I see two enormous sides and almost nothing in the middle. It’s kind of like the universe in the sense that everything is just expanding away from itself leaving no resemblance of what it used to look like. It’s hard to find common ground on any issue anymore and any contrary opinion is considered a personal attack. Having said that, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Republicans would pick a candidate as “Vanilla” as Mitt Romney. He doesn’t step on anyone’s toes and everything he says seems to be written perfectly for the crowd he is addressing. Now, I know candidates since the beginning of politics have played to the crowds. It just seems to me, however, that Romney takes it to a whole new level of pandering. He changes so much from state to state, town to town that there is no way of getting a real read on where he stands on anything. Don’t get me wrong, the president isn’t any better at establishing a real stance on anything, but that is the key to the upcoming election.

Both candidates are equally slippery when it comes to talking around important issues and avoiding the big questions. But this election is going to come down to what we know and what we don’t know. President Obama has had four years and proven that he is capable of making decisions. Whether you agree with them or not is your own opinion but when we go into the voting booth in November we are all going to have to make a choice between what actually is and what might be. Now it maybe true that every election is like that. The question always is, do we stick with what we have or do we move on to something new. I say that this election is most likely the first in American history where people just simply don’t know what they are going to get. This is unfortunate because I do believe it is one of the most important elections. I truly feel that unless Mitt Romney begins taking a real stance on key issues he will not win in November. Now that the convention is over lets see if he starts talking about things that matter. Both candidates are equally slippery when it comes to talking around important issues and avoiding the big questions. But this election is going to come down to what we know and what we don’t know. President Obama has had four years and proven that he is capable of making decisions. Whether you agree with them or not is your own opinion but when we go into the voting booth in November we are all going to have to make a choice between what actually is and what might be. Now it maybe true that every election is like that. The question always is, do we stick with what we have or do we move on to something new. I say that this election is most likely the first in American history where people just simply don’t know what they are going to get. This is unfortunate because I do believe it is one of the most important elections. I truly feel that unless Mitt Romney begins taking a real stance on key issues he will not win in November. Now that the convention is over lets see if he starts talking about things that matter.

When speaking about President Obama’s performance in office, I would give him a 6/10. My criticism of the president does not relate to his handling of the economic crisis he inherited; he had no alternative but to support the Wall Street and subsequent auto industry bailouts. Without the economic stimulus package, things would have gotten a lot worse. On the international front, he has done a pretty good job. Where I fault the president the most is his handling of the ever-growing deficit and tackling the issues of job loss and unemployment. I can make an enormous list of criticisms and praise about President Obama but once the election comes around no body remembers the good, and in the age of the twenty-four hour news cycle you better believe this election is going to be a lot harder to win than the last election.

Why is Mitt going to lose? The answer is simple, Romney is forgetting that in order to win the election, he will have to win over independent and moderate voters. Romney has spent so much of his time trying to convince his own party that he is a true conservative that he has actually alienated the base needed to win the election. What made Mitt Romney an ideal candidate in the beginning was his ability to appeal to moderates. A platform that focuses on who the best man is for the job instead of how he is going to defeat Obama is probably the better strategy. Mitt is going to lose because of a fragmented party. He feels he has to walk a tight rope between the ultra conservative and the moderates. If Obama is capable (which I think he is) to be more moderate than he is going to win the extremely important moderate vote and the election.

Now, theoretically Romney is going to get the Republican vote. No matter what, Obama is “hated” by the ultra conservative republicans so they are voting for “anything but Obama”. Romney has an incredible opportunity to say how he really feels. For this election, the Republicans so desperately want Obama out, that their minds were made up about who they were going to vote for before Obama even took the oath of office.

So why does Mitt even need to pander to those voters? It’s not as if they are going to vote for Obama if all of a sudden Romney tries to go a little more moderate. There is not a chance in hell that the far right is going to not vote for him, so, again, why even fight for those votes? Romney’s stance on abortion and healthcare have been the focus of many attacks by the other GOP candidates. Accusations that he has “flip-flopped” on his stance on issues hurt him early in the race. Now that he will be facing Obama in November, he may have a tough time campaigning against Obamacare given his creation of Romneycare in Massachusetts. The same can be said of his stance on abortion, Romney was a pro-choice conservative which he freely admitted back in 2007. Like I said before, why even fight these issues or change your opinion? Furthermore why choose an ultra conservative person like Paul Ryan? Choosing Paul Ryan has only reinforced the idea that Romney is taking a hard turn to the right.

Romney won the nomination, so why say stupid stuff like “I’ve changed my opinion on abortion” or choose Paul Ryan? He has the incredible opportunity to take every single moderate vote away from Obama if he came out in support of abortion and other social issues such as contraception and gay marriage. He could have won a lot more moderate votes if choose a more progressive or moderate VP. Now instead of having a person to balance the ticket. It seems the Republicans are more interested at making a point about not having to compromise their values instead of actually trying to appeal to the moderate Americans who will undoubtedly help them win the election. I think I can take the liberty in saying that most moderates consider themselves “fiscal conservative” and “social liberals”. Romney could be the perfect moderate candidate if he would just stop trying to please the GOP. It’s not the GOP that he needs to please anymore. He needs to start campaigning for the country, and unless he starts to become more moderate like he really is, then Mitt Romney will undoubtedly lose in November.