Last week’s two monumental Supreme Court decisions — upholding Obamacare and striking down almost all of the Arizona immigration law — have only further alienated a majority of Americans from the DC establishment and deepened the underlying gloomy sense that the nation is careening into unknown territory.
A stagnant economy, poor job prospects and two major parties that seem to talk past most people have deeply soured many Americans; pessimism has replaced the normal inherent American sense of optimism.
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This is the mood as we enter the final four months of the presidential and congressional campaigns.
A few points:
- If Mitt Romney or Barack Obama talked to the nation — in a mature, presidential manner — and offered a realistic path to recovery, that candidate would win the election;
- Either one could do it — but they’d need to do something out of character for them:
- Obama ought to admit he has over-reached and gone too far as president . . . show some humility for once in his life . . . he’d shoot up in the polls — especially among independents if he did this.
- Romney ought to tell the truth: the mess we are in today is the fault of both parties — the George W. Bush-led GOP and the Obama-Pelosi-Reid-led Democrats . . . by admitting his party is also at fault, he’d earn the respect — and votes — of many of the key swing independent voters.
- Romney needs to stop playing the short-term tactical game of just staying close to Obama and then hoping that the bad economy and the GOP Convention “bounce” will propel him past Obama for the home stretch.
- Instead, he needs to think Big . . . and go high . . . high above the petty politics and attack-attack-attack mentality . . . instead, give us the newer version of a city on a hill . . . make Americans feel good again about being an American.
- There has to be a sense that better days are ahead . . . not just “if you stick with the other guy things are going to continue to be bad . . .”
- American voters are looking to be saved from the mess we are in;
- In 2008 Obama was seen by many as so out-of-the-box — and different from the establishment politicians we are all so sick of — that he was seen as the savior; of course, we now see he is in reality just another hack politician;
- Can Romney be seen as a savior? Can he be The Anti-Establishment candidate we so crave?
- Or is he so damaged by his lack-of-conviction, flip-flopping past that he cannot convince voters that he is the man to turn the country to a new and successful direction?
- And if he wants to be seen as this savior, what exactly is the direction he wants to lead us?
These are the questions that will determine who wins on Nov. 6.
John LeBoutillier is a former U.S. congressman and a political commentator who has contributed to many major newspapers and magazines. Read more reports from John LeBoutillier — Click Here Now.
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