Monday, January 9, 2012

Second Place Doesn't Make a President (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Saturday night was the first of two weekend debates ahead of the New Hampshire primary, and by listening to the candidates and their failure to attack Mitt Romney, you'd think they didn't know there were only two more debates before the primary. It reminded me of golf when Tiger Woods won every tournament. Every other player was simply vying for second place. Of course, when it comes to presidential debates, there's no prize for second place.

Second place doesn't guarantee vice presidency or any other government position, so it baffles me as to why none of the candidates tried to knock down Romney. He skated through the entire debate simply reiterating things he's already said. One of his first statements was that he wished "members of Congress had experience in private enterprise." We heard that during the Iowa debate.

When it came to the topic of "commander-in-chief and national security," Jon Huntsman spoke the longest. He stated that "being commander-in-chief is less about the discussions we are having. It's about leading and managing organizations. I believe that this nation is not only looking for leadership but leadership that can be trusted."

Romney stated, "Huntsman can do better than Barack Obama. We have a president who has never lead a state, business or anything. He's had to learn on the job. That is a failed presidency." Romney also stated "anyone on this stage would do better than the current president. We are facing a very dangerous world."

I agree. We are facing a very dangerous world and an increasingly unstable world. Iran is in the process of creating nuclear weapons. Pakistan is unstable. Egypt is unstable. Libya is unstable. In fact, most of the Middle East is unstable. Rick Perry went so far as to state, "Iran is a big problem. You cannot cut one trillion dollars from the DOD budget and expect our country to be safe." Of course, Perry also made the wildly unpopular statement that he'd send troops back to Iraq.

Perry's statement on sending troops back to Iraq probably ended his campaign. However, I do agree with his assessment of the DOD budget. The U.S. basically polices the world. That cannot be done if the DOD does not have an adequate budget, and it will affect U.S. security.

Imagine what would happen if the carriers were removed from the Strait of Hormuz. We wouldn't have been there to rescue the Iranians from pirates, and we wouldn't be there as a deterrent to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz.

What it boils down to is that we need a presidential candidate that can not only beat Obama, but that can also manage the U.S. economy, create jobs, police the world, stay abreast of foreign issues, take immediate action, work with Congress, downsize unneeded sections of government, and cut deficit spending. It's a tall order, and so far it seems like the candidates believe that Romney can fill that position because they're certainly not challenging Romney for it.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120108/cm_ac/10808253_second_place_doesnt_make_a_president

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