Patch Blog: Barack Obama and the 2012 Election

Congratulations Barack Obama. For the current President, the last few days of April and the current month of May have proved to be incredibly successful. At this rate, 2012 seems all the more positive, not only because of own personal achievements but also due to the Republican's inefficiency. 
   
 Obama's sudden success has to have started with the release of his birth certificate. Before this release, a vast amount of Americans were questioning Obama and his citizenship status. However, the release of his birth certificate did more than just silence the critics. It helped to quiet a misinformed Donald Trump, who had been gaining ground in the whole "birther" movement. Trump had even hired a private investigator who he claimed had really shocking and interesting information. Obviously, Trump was wrong. The whole idea that Obama was someone other than who he was claiming was really shut down by the release of his birth certificate. Supporters of Trump, who at one time reigned as the Republican leader for the 2012 election according to past polls, now looked at Trump as someone who was slightly crazy and paranoid. Trump's poll numbers have shrunk, although he has still yet to announce his candidacy and the Republican Party would be less than happy to place him as their front-runner.
   
What was something that many missed was that when Obama released his birth certificate, he made a statement that he had much better things to be doing. It was mainly dismissed. Sure, Presidents are very busy people. They are constantly dealing with foreign and domestic policy, formal occasions, long days, meetings, even if it seems relatively quiet, any President has much better things to do than release his birth certificate. But no American actually thought about the broader implications of this statement. Because only a few days later, Bin Laden, the most hated man in the world for the majority of Americans, was killed by Navy Seals under the direction and leadership of President Barack Obama himself. With this, people saw a job well done and were incredibly pleased and satisfied. Sure, some Republicans and Tea Partiers will never actually give the President the credit he probably deserves, but quite a few Americans decided to. Not only did Obama's approval ratings rise, but so did the percentage of people that said they would vote for Obama in 2012. And the numbers that went down: the percentage of people that said they would vote for the Republican 2012 presidential candidate. Yes, things are definitely looking up for Obama.

 Another reason on why Obama is really enjoying this current time has to do with the fact that he can actually start campaigning for president. Sure, he might not say he is actually campaigning, but when he made trips to Alabama and the tornado sight as well as Ground Zero, he is making a campaign trip. People love to see Obama in this setting and because of this, he has been able to make somewhat of a head start on his campaign. During these trips, Obama gets out of the office and suit setting, and rather is looking active and more casual. People prefer this image of the current president and because of it, Obama's ratings go up and 2012 only looks more optimistic.

 And what about the Republicans? Nothing. There is actually no one candidate that the party can even seem to agree on. Newt seems impressive, but in no way can motivate quite like Obama. And the entire playing field seems rather lacking. People who carry big names are not drawing the kind of support, especially inside the party. Due to how right the Republican Party has become, Republicans want to put someone up who is way right-wing. The problem is that although these candidates might be able to get the Republican party support, they will in no way be able to compete in a general election against Obama. The Republican Party's chances would be much better if they put someone up who was far more moderate but the fact is they do not want to do that. They want someone who will enforce a very conservative policy, whether it be through the budget and government programs as well as through the social and foreign policy. These kind of Republicans cannot compete against Obama, especially because of the great time he has been enjoying these past few weeks. Just another reason why Obama being elected in 2012 seems like such a realistic scenario.