NYT Article
I'm sure you all have heard about the killing of French soldiers, Jewish children and a Rabbi in Toulouse, France. The suspected murderer was found, confronted in this apartment after a 32 hour stand off and killed once a raid on his apartment happened. He was found to be a member of Al Qaeda. This is interesting to politics, and especially me since I will be in France for the Presidential elections, because the candidates running for president suspended their campaigning during this national crisis. I thought this posed a very question to presidential campaigns in the United States where elections seem to run through every part of our lives.
Would presidential campaigns ever be suspended in the United States for any reason?
I can't imagine a crisis of any type that would have candidates willing to suspend their campaigns. National events seem more and more to be welcome to presidential candidates because it allows them to win brownie points by supporting the country on what is usually a one sided event. In the example of France, all of the candidates were in support of finding this terrorist actor and ending the killings. However, in the United States, more and more often I find that candidates take national events and use them to take low blows at other candidates. Critiquing any fault in speech or handling of the affair.
Your answer or opinion?
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9/11 didn't occur in a national election year, but I'm inclined to think an event of that magnitude would've made campaigning seem inappropriate. Remember in 2008, though, when McCain pronounced he was suspending his campaign after September 15 because Lehman Bros when belly up and the next day the stock market took a huge nose dive? It didn't materialize into a national time-out, partly because Treasury Secretary Paulson felt an immediate TARP program was essential to save the financial system from total meltdown.
ReplyDeleteI think that the 2008 election might as well be a lifetime ago compared to the election this year. McCain is a seasoned veteran of politics who had fairly moderate ideas before he entered the election so perhaps his rational side was showing up again. I agree with Walker that if any crisis were to occur now it would only be to the delight of the Republican Party. President Obama said that the Republican Party is the only party that is actually happy when the country is doing badly. I think we have crossed a threshold that we cannot turn back from. Our politics have gotten so out of hand that Republicans candidates could not say that they agree with a Democrat on anything now without getting their heads ripped off. So, to suspend their campaign in order to show respect for an event that they might be able to get a snide comment in about?....Not a chance.
ReplyDeleteI think that the 2008 election might as well be a lifetime ago compared to the election this year. McCain is a seasoned veteran of politics who had fairly moderate ideas before he entered the election so perhaps his rational side was showing up again. I agree with Walker that if any crisis were to occur now it would only be to the delight of the Republican Party. President Obama said that the Republican Party is the only party that is actually happy when the country is doing badly. I think we have crossed a threshold that we cannot turn back from. Our politics have gotten so out of hand that Republicans candidates could not say that they agree with a Democrat on anything now without getting their heads ripped off. So, to suspend their campaign in order to show respect for an event that they might be able to get a snide comment in about?....Not a chance.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that unless the United States experienced an extremely catastrophic event that had an impact on all of its citizens, most politicians wouldn't ever consider suspending their presidential campaigns. Some candidates might even criticize the incumbent for how he responded to such a situation and would thereby attempt to increase their number of supporters. Politics has become such a dirty game in the U.S. and it seems that as time goes on, the chance of this ever changing grows smaller and smaller.
ReplyDeleteI do not think there is any crisis that would deter the campaign ball games to go on. In fact, I think that in case of even a national crisis, the candidates would use that to their advantage to reach out and campaign, something I would and find very selfish of the American political system.
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