America’s presidential election .... Game on

[MindMover]

AMERICA’S primary elections are not yet formally over, but with the exit of Rick Santorum it is at last plain that Mitt Romney will be the Republicans’ nominee. After the bruising primaries, Mr Romney starts from behind. Barack Obama leads in the head-to-head polls. But there are still seven months to election day, and Mr Romney has a fair chance of victory in November. Less than half of America’s voters approve of the way Mr Obama is doing his job. Six out of ten think the country is on the “wrong track”. The recovery is still weak and 12.7m Americans are unemployed. America added only 120,000 jobs in March, below expectations and fewer than in previous months.

This fight is going to be nastier than the one in 2008. By instinct Mr Romney is a moderate, but the primaries tugged him sharply right, forcing him to boast that he was “severely conservative” by embracing policies, including deep cuts in social spending, that even the famous flip-flopper will now find it difficult to drop. After the primaries, candidates pivot towards the centre. But Mr Romney knows that to turn out a conservative base that does not love him he must mobilise their hatred of Mr Obama. In the meantime Mr Obama appears to believe that he cannot afford to present himself once more as a healer who will soar above party divisions. He is running a more partisan campaign this time round. An already polarised America therefore faces a deeply polarising election.

http://www.economist.com/node/21552561

[elleng]

1. The Sweet Spot

'Many activists in both parties cling, like Santorum, to the hope that they can win from a position of impassioned orthodoxy. And like Santorum, they are usually wrong. Even Reagan moved to the middle from time to time.

Centrism is easily mocked and not much fun to defend. Many on the left who find Santorum’s politics repellent would agree with him that moving to the middle is intellectually uninspiring and morally unsatisfying. Even if you are not someone who thrills to the trumpets of moral clarity or regards “uncompromising” as the highest praise, you can see where they’re coming from. The politics of the center — including the professional centrists and trans-partisans of groups like Third Way and Americans Elect — do not quicken the pulse. White bread, elevator music, No Labels, meh.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/opinion/keller-the-sweet-spot.html?hp

[quaker bill]

2. Republicans have made unrelenting war

on the country and all the people who had the gall to elect the "wrong" candidate in 2008. They have done or attempted to do everything they could to cause suffering, delay recovery, prevent effective economic intervention, and then directly disenfranchise those who voted "wrong". Shouting "you lie" during a SOTU address was basically an unprecedented breach of decorum symbolic of the extent republicans are prepared to go to punish the country.

They are not punishing Obama with any of this, he made 3/4 of a million dollars last year and has earned a great pension for the rest of his life. Removing the right to collective bargaining in various states does nothing to the President, but it does considerable damage to the people republicans think voted "wrong". Public sector layoffs are again pointed at the same targets. Benefit cuts, the same... A congresswoman barely survived an intended assasination...

The game has been on for 3.5 years. It was not called out as clearly as it will be because this is the election year. The election will not polarize, it will merely point out the polarity that exists.