pameladlloyd | How Do You Choose Who You'll Vote For? Or, Image or Issues?

I had another post in mind, until I watched an hour or so of news and started reading my friends list.

Making the rounds on television tonight is a statement made by Senator McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis. According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Then, I came across this post, On Palin and the GOP, on

barackobama2008, in which the author claims to be an ex-Republican (now a Democrat) who has previously voted for Ron Paul, and complains about Republican spokespersons at the Iowa caucuses, talk radio hosts, and Palin's introductory speech. Unfortunately, following the links in that post doesn't bring me to a credible source for the article. Clicking the underlined headline in the post brings me to this post, which claims the text is a letter found on "the listserv from Arkansas for Obama." Clicking the link for Andrewsullivan.com brings me to Andrew Sullivan's "The Daily Dish" feature on theAtlantic.com, where I cannot find the letter. I even checked out Snopes, but could find no reference, one way or another. Yet, I have to consider this article to be highly suspicious, until proven otherwise.

Regardless of its veracity, I see that letter as being all about image. Much of the article is a complaint about how Republican politicians and their supporters are focusing on personal attacks and that the content of their speeches lacks substance, when the writer was looking for character vouchers for Republican candidates and their stances on issues. If an ex-Republican wrote it, as the letter claims, then his complaint is that the current Republican campaign is all about image. But, if a Democrat who had never been a Republican wrote it, then the letter itself is an attempt to manipulate the image others have about Republicans and is a bit of underhanded chicanery that really disturbs me.

Now, I certainly thought that issues were driving the campaigns at the beginning of the election cycle, but it does seem to me that there has been a lot of focus on image and the logical fallacy sometimes called the appeal (or the argument) to the man. So, I'm wondering whether others are seeing a shift away from the issues and to the image, or if you still feel that the reasons for your voting choices come down to the issues. Or, maybe it's something else that's driving your decision-making process?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

AFAICT, politics has been about image for as long as I can remember. Or at least that's what both parties want the country to think, and most of the country appears to. I don't vote that way, and I do know others who don't. But we appear to be a vanishing breed.

It's really discouraging to wonder if our general citizenship is really paying careful attention to what's going on in politics, when we feel the issues are important and the decision is crucial.

I try not to think about that too hard. I like sleeping at night.

I think the uncertainty of knowing which way the vote will go can make us feel more anxious than we did when change was farther off. Yet, I am optimistically (in between bouts of worrying) hoping for real change.

as the bumper sticker says: If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

How funny! I just saw that bumper sticker in traffic on my way home.

It does feel very true now, but I'm not sure it's not always true, especially when we're talking about politics--at any scale and of any stripe.

I think this election is going to be about a whole stinking lot of things... and images is certainly in the top five. When November 4 rolls around, it's going to be about the economy. We're still losing jobs every quarter, and more people are realizing how bad our dependence on oil is. In the end, this is what drives my decision process. I've done a lot of thinking this year about what makes a good president... and executive as opposed to a legislature. One answer: having a vision and having the ability to make others' believe in and work for your vision.

Between now and then, though, there's a lot of other things to sort through. I'm terribly afraid that there's still a lot of folks in this country that in the privacy of a voting booth are not going to be able to vote for an African-American newcomer when the other choice is John McCain. sigh

I'm not real sure why Sarah Palin gave the Republican ticket such a bounce... really?? this is someone people want one 72-y-o, cancer survivor's heartbeat away from the presidency? Maybe it is about image?

I love having the Washington Post as my local newspaper. I read The Fix all the time.

KB

I worry about many of the same things you mention: our economy, our dependence on oil, how to figure out if someone will be a good leader (I'd be interested in your thoughts about the differences you see between what is wanted/needed in a president and other executive positions, and what is wanted/needed in the legislature), whether our fellow voters are ready to put racism aside when they vote.

On that last, I sometimes think that while there will be people who have difficulty voting for an African-American when no one is looking, there are going to be others who will take advantage of that privacy to vote for Obama, even while reassuring their racist friends and neighbors of the opposite.

I've been holding off on discussing Palin. Her entry into the campaign has both complicated and clarified it, I think. She's fascinating for both liberals and conservatives, in a very polarizing way, but not necessarily a way that changes the balance, so far as I can see. I don't know yet what the reaction of the independents will be to her, but I suspect it will be much less enthusiastic than the Republicans have hoped.

Here's a quote for you, (as reported in The Washington Post):
"Enough," Obama declared. "I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift Boat politics. Enough is enough."

You asked about my thoughts to a president's job... here it goes, my apologies if it rambles a bit. In today's campaigns, it seems we've lost the distinction between the executive branch and the legislative branch. Maybe that's natural since two senators are the party nominees.

The legislature's job is craft good law, within the boundaries of the Constitution. Hillary Clinton excels at this, as has John McCain. I really think Hillary best serves the country as a senior senator. The executive branch's job is to help set priorities and use its political capital to focus and define the debate on any given issue. The President needs to have a vision and a plan for where our country needs to go. Presumably, voters elect the person whose plan (ahhh... issues!) they think is the best.

The President should be able to work with Congress to solve problems facing the country, ideally. FDR's first hundred days show what can happen when the President can sell his vision and plan to Congress. I grew up in the era of Tip O'Neill... all this works best when Congress is being led by wise heads also. I'm not sure we've had a Speaker of the House to equal Tip O'Neill since. Someone who also helps shape the public debate and set priorities for the country, not just a particular state or district.

But, the President doesn't in his office, pass laws, only veto the ones he really doesn't want. His power comes in more subtle ways, and by administrating the laws that we do have.

This fairly ideal view of the balance of power has been severely comprised in the current administration. Congress gave the President leeway to go to Iraq, and in turn he allowed Congress to increase earmarks and other pork relatively unchecked. They scratched each others' back to a shameful degree. Add campaign finance, energy lobbyist with backdoor entry to the White House, a sinking real estate market, and cronyism to the mix, and it gets lethal fast.

Yes, the tenor of business as usual here in the District of Chaos needs to change. But, it's going to be a long, uphill road for whomever gets to lead the charge. I applaud Obama for the quote above, but I also want to see money where the mouth is. I'm also betting we have a 1-term presidency, no matter who wins, because that battle is going to use political capital at an unforeseen rate.

Kristen

Wow! Thanks for posting all this. I'm on my way out the door, so I can't respond in a meaningful way at the moment, but I will try to do so when I get back home.

In the meantime, I invite anyone else reading this to chime in. The more, the merrier. We need lots of different viewpoints to make our democracy strong, in my opinion.

My eldest son comments that this election is not about issues, but about eidolons, that is, images of ideals. He says, what's not important are the ideals themselves, but the image that they are putting forward.

I asked if he thought that this was as true for Obama as it is for McCain and he said that he thinks it's impossible to tell, because we can't see inside someone's heart.

How Do You Choose Who You'll Vote For? Or, Image or Issues?

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