Heavyweights

Bill

The second round of the Presidential heavyweight fight is now complete, the champion has rebounded a bit, the contest, slogs on toward its unknown conclusion. Meanwhile ordinary Americans wonder whether any of it will make a difference in their lives.

Regardless of what one thought of the thrust and parry, the points scored, the smirking and frowning, the blows landed and avoided, the raw aggression of the contestants lent an ominous note to the whole business. The contempt, if not hatred, these two men have for each other was palpable. I may think that Romney is deeply misguided in his basic economic philosophy, and that his his biography has left him ill prepared to understand what life is like among the working class, but I don't doubt his personal integrity (although his willingness to say anything for momentary political advantage is striking, even by the abysmally low standard of the day). Certainly I believe equally in the President's integrity, and not just because I share his general world view, and am convinced that he's better equipped to lead the nation. But millions of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum, find the very character of one of these men unacceptably inadequate. As both us have acknowledged time and again, this level of enmity is nothing new in American politics. It's a competition after all, You win, and become or remain immortal, or you lose and become an afterthought. After the election however the same enormous problems that both candidates have been dancing around will still be there, and it will be up to both the winners and losers to solve them, or let the country sink further.

Eli