With the end of the election season many people were hopeful that the politicking would cease, and the process of governing would begin. 

I have got good news and bad news.

In 2008, America, frustrated with a seemingly endless war in Iraq, military action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a faltering economy, turned to the most unlikely of presidential candidates, one with little government experience and a much different view of American’s role in the world.

The last of the debates in this election season is history.  It is now up to the American people to decide, and the third presidential debate added little information to the decision-making process.  In fact, I found most of the debate to border on boring. 

The second presidential debate did little to shed new light on either candidate.  For President Obama he gave his campaign stump speech in answer to every question he was asked.  Mitt Romney gave his most compelling argument in favor of defeating the president by saying the American people can do better. 

Unlike the Presidential debate which was a clear victory for Mitt Romney, the Vice-Presidential debate was not so clear cut.

Budget Cuts.  It will be the big battle of the next Congress, cutting the federal budget, reigning in spending, and reducing the national debt.  Democrats want a token tax increase, a feel good proposal to tax the “rich.”  Republicans want no tax increase, but do want big cuts in spending.  So what will the ramifications be?  Here in Louisiana we have an insight of just how popular these ideas might be.

The Debates.  President Obama and Challenger Mitt Romney have been spending the past several weeks preparing for their upcoming debates.  These series of debates are crucial for both candidates and especially so for Mitt Romney.  In fact, a mediocre performance by Romney dooms his campaign.

The uprising in the Middle East and the attacks on the U. S. Embassies are clear reminders that the war on terror is far from over.  Our enemies are still after us, eleven years after 9/11.

The United States is hated by large groups of radical religious zealots from the Middle East all under the guise of religion and a belief that the only good non-Muslim is a dead one.  They have made this very clear.  The governments of the various countries that house these terrorists either walk a fine line between appeasement of the terrorists and appeasement of the United States or outright hatred of the United States and support for the terrorists.  In either event they still take our foreign aid and our money.  And what is worse is we keep doling it out when these nations are in cahoots with our enemies.

The show that is called the national party conventions is now over.  And a show is just what it was.  The Democrats and the Republicans each have their candidates for President and Vice-President.  The conventions are not designed to convince the convention goers whom to vote for.  They already know how they are going to vote.  As a decision making process the conventions are a thing of the past.  The outcome is already determined.  Rather it is a huge campaign commercial designed to sway voters to their side.  In reality the conventions don’t succeed at doing that either, but they are still a show nonetheless.