Race for the White House 2012

This past week, most of the political attention was centered on Washington D.C. as Barack Obama, the Democrat controlled Senate, and Republican controlled House worked on a budget deal. At nearly the deadline last night to avert a government shutdown, a compromise agreement was reached, as I predicted last week.

Earlier this week, Obama formally became a candidate for reelection with the FEC. The "Organizing for America" website is now once again officially an Obama/Biden campaign site. While not a huge surprise, the inclusion of incumbent Joe Biden as the President's running mate fits with the traditions of other incumbent Presidents running for reelection, whose earliest campaign materials also included that of the Veep.

Needless to say, Obama is the clear front-runner for his party's nomination. It should be a much easier path than it was four years ago. There are no indications that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, or former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh are planning to oppose the President in a primary. I still would be interested to see if left-wing Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich may make a third consecutive quixotic run, under the theme that Obama has not been "progressive" enough domestically or internationally.

In other Democrat news, with the current party chair Tim Kaine jumping into a Virginia U.S. Senate race, Obama has selected Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to head the DNC through the upcoming election cycle. While she will be the public face of the national committee, the day to day work will likely be done by others at party headquarters, and of course the reelection campaign and the Obama White House.

Finally, Obama received a perhaps not too coveted written endorsement for reelection by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who of course is being bombed in effect by the candidate he referred to as "our dear son." Four years ago, an endorsement of Obama by a prominent Muslim leader of a foreign country might have been heralded by American liberals of an example of how U.S. foreign policy would change for the better from their perspective.

On the Republican side, various candidates continue to organize, mostly behind the scenes, with an eye on next year's nomination contest. This past week has seen celebrity businessman Donald Trump receive the most attention. He has more than doubled down on blunt talk about how America is "going to hell" and that he would be the best candidate to save it. Trump also claims to have investigators in Hawai'i to look into doubts that some have as to if Obama was born there as claimed.

These harsh attacks on Obama, and Trump's high name recognition have already catapulted him into what appears to be a position of contention nationally among Republicans and in the first primary state of New Hampshire. I still believe that Trump will not run for President, and if he did, he would crash and burn in pretty spectacular fashion.

Editorializing further, I would like to make a suggestion to any of my fellow conservatives, who believe Trump is what is needed to defeat Obama and be a President we can be proud of....

Get your heads examined.