There are some who have criticized the President's decision to formally announce his candidacy this week for reelection in 2012. To these critics, November 2012 seems so far away.
But, of course, it isn't, not if you're from Chicago.
Indeed, Mr. Obama is following the time-honored Cook County political calendar: The next election cycle begins as the last one ends. We had a municipal election in Chicago yesterday (Mr. Emmanuel avoided the runoff, but there were runoff elections in 14 of Chicago's 50 wards).
The 2012 primary campaign officially started in Cook County last night when the polls closed. If Mr. Obama jumped the gun in any sense, it was by no more than a day or so.
You may complain that this is a terrible way to do things; you may believe that the public should have some respite from perpetual campaigns; you may even think that elected officials should spend some time at the jobs they were elected to perform instead of always campaigning to keep those jobs -- or eying the next rung on the cursus honorum. I may even sympathize with these complaints, if you have them. But that is not how things work in politics in 2011 -- or, should I say, 2012.
1 comment:
I should think the last thing any US citizen wants to hear about is an election that is 18 months away!
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