Campaign Stop Ratings (Part One)

This year, 2012, the election for the next president is up for grabs. Since Obama is a democrat and has only served one term, he is up for the presidential spot on the democratic side. The republicans are the ones that have to do all the campaigning because it’s still undecided who will be Obama’s competitor. (The democrats can choose someone other than Obama but they usually pick the president). In order for the candidates to get the word out about their ideas they have to campaign like crazy, meaning we get to enjoy the endless phone calls, commercials, mailings and debates on TV that just happen to be shown on the same channel as the show you wanted to watch. Another way to campaign is to hold campaign stops. This probably appeals to more people because you have the choice to go see someone and you get a more personal feel about their opinions. The candidates do all this in hope of seeing the results they are looking for in the caucuses and primaries held in each state which will ultimately decide who the republicans pick to go up against Obama.

Since Iowa is the first caucus in the United States we get to experience the republican candidates campaigning first. Some people believe that whoever wins the caucus in Iowa will have a better chance at being the republican candidate for the presidency. Probably if we didn’t have that impact or we weren’t first, the candidates would go for the bigger states than campaign here which could be good or bad. I was lucky and with the help from my older sister and dad I almost met all the candidates in person and got a picture with them. Since I am not old enough to vote in this next election I went along mainly for the fun and to see what kind of free stuff was handed out. I could go on and rank them from where I agree with their views but that would be boring. Instead I am going to rank them from best to least favorite based on their free stuff, location and the time limit on their speeches.

Best : Ron Paul. The main reason I chose him to be the best is because he got my sister and I on national television (which I talked about in a previous blog) and really nobody can beat that. He also made his campaign spot at a great location, the Kirkwood Hotel, which is very nice and sophisticated looking. Ron Paul had free stuff but nothing out of the ordinary, the usual buttons, stickers and pamphlets. The one thing though, that struck me as different was the free cookbooks. He said it was a tradition in their family to hand out cook books, so we grabbed a cookbook that his wife had made. Ron Paul did make the comment that the food in the cookbook may not be the healthiest but it sure is good which I thought was funny.