Opinion

Discussion

August 2, 2012

Waiting for the debates

CNHI

— Beginning Oct. 8 and once a week thereafter until the end of October, we will have the opportunity to see four major political debates: three with President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney going one-on-one and one debate between the two vice presidential candidates.

These debates could well be decisive in solidifying voter opinion prior to the election on Nov. 6.

One of the presidential debates will be focused on domestic issues, specifically the economy. A second debate will be over foreign policy issues. The final presidential debate will be a town hall meeting format with questions coming from the floor asked by American citizens in attendance.

The single most important question to be resolved by voters in this election is which of the presidential candidates is best suited to lead America in the next four years — critical years on a very wide range of both domestic and international issues. For the moment it seems the polls show a very tight race for the election of our next president. Just maybe the debates will be the tiebreaker in American public opinion.

The critical issue for this country boils down to which presidential candidate can and will form an administration capable of breaking the political stalemate in Washington between the Democratic Party and the GOP.

In the 2010 election, American voters showed a strong sentiment toward reducing the power the Democrats gained in 2008. The GOP hopes to sustain that tide of anti-Democratic Party sentiment in 2012, and of course Democrats want to reverse that trend.

The next president will have to govern with a deeply divided Congress as we continue to struggle as a country with huge economic and international security issues. Relying on raw political power held by one party over the other is not in the best interests of all Americans, in our view.



The Joplin Globe, Joplin, Mo.

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