American Government, Commentary Paper
Matthew Harrison
Poli 201-001
October 8, 2012 Commentary Paper Yahoo News’ Senior Political Reporter Holly Bailey wrote an article after the first presidential debate about Mitt Romney. Unlike most articles about Romney’s lopsided win over President Obama Bailey’s article is about how Mitt Romney is showing a different side to voters. Mitt Romney has always been given the unfair classification of a aloof rich guy who enjoys politics as a side hobby. But in this article Bailey references how Romney is trying to show a softer side to himself. Ann Romney speaks about how her husband does not show the “real” Mitt and is trying to change this so that voters can relate more with him and see that he cares. With the election about a month away, Mitt Romney is doing all he can to show voters through personal stories and his demeanor that he cares about the American people. (Bailey, 2012). Through this article we can see a small view of how the candidates have a purpose for everything they do and in response to this we must be immune to emotional voting and instead vote on values. Bailey’s article directly relates to the rationality principle. This principle is that all political action has a purpose. Mitt Romney knows that to the average voter he is portrayed as stiff and uncaring. In a recent Reuters poll on which candidate voters liked better Romney trailed Obama by thirty points (Bailey). This poll can show that Romney has to switch it up if he hopes to sway voters opinions. Our book elaborates on this by saying “one of the major reasons governments do what they do is because they want to respond to what people want” (Lowi et al., 2012,7). President Obama’s charisma with the American people is very good. Not only is his charisma good but he is instrumental in what he says and does to portray some sort of values that he is trying to get across to voters. Being able to tell what purpose candidates in politics are trying push is difficuly. A article on CBSnews.com
Poli 201-001
October 8, 2012 Commentary Paper Yahoo News’ Senior Political Reporter Holly Bailey wrote an article after the first presidential debate about Mitt Romney. Unlike most articles about Romney’s lopsided win over President Obama Bailey’s article is about how Mitt Romney is showing a different side to voters. Mitt Romney has always been given the unfair classification of a aloof rich guy who enjoys politics as a side hobby. But in this article Bailey references how Romney is trying to show a softer side to himself. Ann Romney speaks about how her husband does not show the “real” Mitt and is trying to change this so that voters can relate more with him and see that he cares. With the election about a month away, Mitt Romney is doing all he can to show voters through personal stories and his demeanor that he cares about the American people. (Bailey, 2012). Through this article we can see a small view of how the candidates have a purpose for everything they do and in response to this we must be immune to emotional voting and instead vote on values. Bailey’s article directly relates to the rationality principle. This principle is that all political action has a purpose. Mitt Romney knows that to the average voter he is portrayed as stiff and uncaring. In a recent Reuters poll on which candidate voters liked better Romney trailed Obama by thirty points (Bailey). This poll can show that Romney has to switch it up if he hopes to sway voters opinions. Our book elaborates on this by saying “one of the major reasons governments do what they do is because they want to respond to what people want” (Lowi et al., 2012,7). President Obama’s charisma with the American people is very good. Not only is his charisma good but he is instrumental in what he says and does to portray some sort of values that he is trying to get across to voters. Being able to tell what purpose candidates in politics are trying push is difficuly. A article on CBSnews.com
Cited: Bailey, Holly. “ Election Day in sight, Romney shows a softer side to voters.” Yahoo News. Web. 08 October 2012. Montopoli, Brian. “Lying politicans: A fact of life.” CBSnews. Web. 3 August 2012. Ginsberg, Benjamin, Lowi, Shepsle, Ansolabehere. American Government Power and Purpose. New York, London. W.W. Norton. 2012. Print