There are many factors to take into account when planning a bid for the presidency. The most important of those right now are economic difficulties and the disputes in Iraq and the Middle East. These are recurring problems that President Barack Obama has and will have to face; however, he will have ample opportunity to work on them. Obama will have little trouble reclaiming his office in 2012 because of the stability he has created this term along with the broken front of the leaderless Republican Party.
Because of the recent recession, jobs and unemployment have become important issues in politics. Politicians in every party have promised to create jobs, but not all have succeeded. According to the Wall Street Journal, former President George W. Bush created only three million jobs during his 96 months in office.
The only president to achieve less than that in the last five presidencies is, ironically, President George Bush Sr.
Despite the attention placed on employment in these troubled times, President Obama has been effective at developing a stable job industry. The stimulus plan he designed has created 3.6 million jobs and boosted the economic output by $400 billion, according to a report by www.usatoday.com conducted in August 2010. Even with this job increase, most Americans believe job availability continues to be a problem.
Citizens blame the economic situation for the way the United States is dealing with the Middle East. President Obama may receive criticism for the way America has responded to his procedures, but he inherited most of the problems. During President George W. Bush’s final year in office, the number of troops in Iraq reached a high of 187,900, according to www.fas.org.
Even as a senator President Obama proposed the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, an idea that followed him to the Presidential Office. With plans proposed and implemented by President Obama, the amount of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq will decrease by 64 percent.
As a bonus, the deaths of al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, occurred during his administration. While the killing of the greatest enemy of America for the last ten years may seem to have little to do with the politics behind getting Obama re-elected, it creates a sense of security in the United States.
With the president turning the lights out on the biggest players in terrorism today, how could Americans not feel secure?
This feeling of safety has created a strong campaign for President Obama before the official campaign has even started. Taking everything into account, there is little reason for President Obama to lose the election in 2012. The only thing the president has to worry about is the Republicans; however, they do not have a strong front capable of battering the current president into submission.
The primary concern for the Republican Party is that it has not yet shown a real frontrunner while President Obama is already campaigning for the presidency. Many expected former Gov. of Massachusetts Mitt Romney to generate support and become the Republican nominee, but he waited until June 11 to officially announce he plans to run for the position.
But because Romney was one of the last candidates to announce his candidacy, those who may have been his largest fan base lost that faith.
So, with no clear frontrunner, the Republican Party leaned on the Ames Straw Poll, hoping for a leader.
However, the same day, Gov. of Texas Rick Perry announced his election bid, which took most of the thunder from the candidates at the Straw Poll — including winner Michelle Bachmann. Because of this entrance, Perry’s popularity has jumped and he has gained many followers. This action created a brand new Republican frontrunner.
However, Gov. Perry does not have a strong foundation beneath him. Nine months ago, he released his book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save American from Washington about his plan to solve the problems in the government. Seeing as most of the ideas in the book conflict with some of the generalities he has already proposed for his presidential years, he has forsaken the entire text. If Gov. Perry cannot even back himself up with his own book, what can he backhimself up with?
The result of Perry’s actions indirectly makes Obama looks more secure and more stable than the Republican Party. Whether this is the truth or not, Obama’s reelection is inevitable. He is the only candidate whose foundation for the upcoming election is concrete.
With such confusion in the Republican Party and a strong showing on key issues by Barack Obama in the past years, the Republicans shattered front will be no challenge for President Obama’s campaign.
The only way for the nation to improve is to keep the President in for a second term because the Republicans cannot create the united nation that’s needed in a time like this.
By Shannon Freese