What's in a name?

Although this post (and blog) is not endorsing any candidate or political party, I would like to simply take a moment to reflect on the collection of names that have happened upon our screens during the debates.

First, there is Newt. I'm sorry, but what kind of name is that? And can anyone really imagine themselves saying, "Oh yeah, the president of our country... yeah, his name is Newt." Hmm.

Then there is Mitt. Mitt as in a baseball mitt or mittens? Newt and Mitt.

Then there is Ron and Jon. Their names look alike and they rhyme. 

That brings us to Newt and Mitt, Ron and Jon.

How to bring this all together? Two candidates with the very same name, of course. (Duh).

Finally, we have: Newt and Mitt, Ron and Jon, Rick and Rick.

Or Barack.

Happy campaigning.

Politician Promotions: On Putting Yourself in a Positive Light

We're all well acquainted with the vast amounts of propaganda that surround political races, especially at this time of the year. The television and radio clips that seem to fall into two extreme categories: completely bashing an opponent or promoting one's self.

Choices that these candidates have made in the past are most definitely going to affect how they feel about certain issues. However, "judging a book by its cover" comes into play here and brings up the fact that you can't judge a person solely on their past actions or inactions. A commercial that spends 28 seconds claiming that candidate A doesn't support ______ and has worked hard to fight against ______ followed by two seconds of, "I'm candidate B and I support this message," does not make me want to vote for either of these candidates. First, it makes me want to research candidate A and look into what his or her past mistakes really were and what he or she is planning on doing differently now and in the future. Second, why would a commercial completely bashing candidate A and saying absolutely nothing about candidate B encourage me to vote for candidate B?

I have to give lots of credit to those candidates who choose to utilize their full 30 seconds by promoting themselves. By talking about their own mistakes and communicating how they plan to work on certain issues, they are putting themselves in a very high position. In my opinion, if you are a good enough candidate you should not have to put down everyone else in order to make yourself look good. You should be able to run on the appeal of your characteristics alone.