Obama vs. Romney

So.  This is how things are.  Obama vs. Romney.  Honestly, I'm so disenchanted with both of them that I'm having a hard time caring about the contest.  I couldn't even come up with a more interesting title for this post.  I desperately want to be excited about one of them.  They're just not that interesting.

I went back to read what I wrote about both of them during the primaries in 2008.  4 years later, my opinions haven't changed much.  Obama hasn't convinced me that he can effectively work with Republicans (which was a major running point 4 years ago).  If anything, and I don't blame him for it, the Republicans very effectively shut down nearly everything he wanted to accomplish.  His current platform appears to amount to "Give me 4 more years, and I promise I'll be more effective this time."  He's still charismatic, but I just don't think he has the fire to actually accomplish his big ideals.

As for Romney, if anything, he's even harder to pin down to any positions than he was 4 years ago.  Thankfully the Mormon issue seems to have blown over this time with plenty of talk about it, but little actual effect.  He's put even more distance between himself and his Governorship, which is probably in his own best interests.

On the issues... I'm conflicted.  Obama says all the right things to make the socially liberal side of me want to support him.  But for all of his talk, I'm not convinced that he'll actually accomplish any of them, even if he wants to.  Romney, on the other hand, appeals to the social conservatives that I want to oppose, but, in my personal opinion, he has little interest in pursuing those goals with any kind of enthusiasm.

Economics issues... I tend toward more conservative principles (lower spending, balanced budgets, etc.).  But, that said, the principles I favor are not, necessarily, ideal for the current economy.  I've tried reading the Ryan budget and listening to experts, and the more informed I become, the more certain I become that none of them know what the right answer is.  They're working by trial and error, which is unfortunate, but probably necessary.  Economics (on the national scale, as set by national policies) doesn't have hard and fast rules (as much as both sides would like us to think it does).  Or, if it does have hard and fast rules, we haven't figured out what they are yet.

So what am I going to do in November?  I haven't decided yet.  But I live in New York, the state is going to vote for Obama regardless of what I do.  So maybe I'll worry more about local elections and less about the national contest for the next few months.