Why Must We Suffer Through Two Years Of Presidential Campaigning?

By James Donahue

I don’t know how other folks are thinking, but I am so tired of the constant news coverage of the race among Republican hopefuls for the party presidential nomination that I have lost interest in the American news outlets.

The barrage of campaign stories began as soon as the 2010 mid-term elections were over and they haven’t stopped. And we still have almost a full year of state primary elections and party conventions to wade through before we get a crack at electing anybody in November.

This ongoing contest among a pack of well-financed but not very popular characters has been the main focus of the national news media since the start, and we can’t understand why. As a retired news reporter who spent much of his life covering county, state and national issues, I have always had an interest in politics. But this daily blast of uninteresting news about a pack of very uninteresting candidates has me so bored I sometimes wait until the nightly news is over, or at least the first half is over, before turning on my television. That is because the top stories are always about some new pole indicating which idiot is in the lead that particular day. And all this before the first state election process . . . the Iowa caucus . . . is held.

The question I have about all of this is why are they giving all of this non-news so much news coverage? It seems that someone in high places is trying to either generate a lot of interest among voters . . . many of whom spent much of their time peering at athletic events . . . that they will watch the campaign in the way they watch football. Is there a master plan to get the people so enamored by the campaign that they vote for whichever Republican wins the nomination in November? Is there a mind control event going on there, pushing the masses into rooting for their favorite team, thus bringing down the incumbent Democratic President in November?

I don’t know how many people are feeling any excitement about all of the pontificating by Newt, Mitt, Ron, Michele, Jon and the two Ricks. From what I know about state conventions and caucuses, the county delegates that attend them don’t necessarily choose the people campaigning for the state nomination. Dark horses sometimes emerge. So why is the media working so hard to pre-determine what the state delegates are going to do before it happens?

Why?

Does anybody get the feeling that the American media is being skillfully used to manipulate the minds of the people? Is it just possible that after all of the hoopla, the 2012 elections will be so rigged that it won’t matter how we vote? The gangsters in power will still have their fingers on the money and the Washington circus will continue on as usual.