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Of the three candidates still left in the race, Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy for President in January of 2007. John McCain was the latest entry to the race declaring in April of 2007.
However, the campaigning began over a year and a half before this year’s election. There is nothing to stop someone from declaring for the 2012 election right now.
There must be a limit on when a candidate can enter the Presidential race, preferably at the beginning of the year of the election. Doing this would help in two ways:
It would make the race short and exciting instead of drawn out as it is now, which just leads to large amounts of voter apathy.
Also, this restriction would allow the people in the country to focus on what the President in office is doing at the present, instead of worrying about what will happen a year down the road.
Some issues that far in the past may not even be pertinent come election time a year later, so why worry about them?In America, the goal is to elect a candidate who appeals to your personal opinions. However, it is near impossible to find out what each candidate actually believes. Along with the enormous sums of money that campaigns cost, each candidate tries to package themselves as a brand in order to appear more electable to voters.
In doing so, they do nothing but confuse the common voter.
Part of the problem is the incessant media coverage that does nothing to help the average person find out anything about each candidate’s intricate personal beliefs.
These candidates are now more concerned with winning the election and getting to the White House than actually what they will do in the White House. It is now completely impossible for a normal person to run for President, which makes America no longer a democracy.
No one can seriously make a run for President anymore unless they have mounds of cash at their disposal. No one except the wealthy elite is physically capable of raising the amount of money necessary to fund a campaign.
Well, you could enter the race extremely early in order to slowly build the cash reserves necessary to win. What needs to happen is that a limit should be placed on the amount of money spent in a campaign.
Candidates will have to let people know their real stances in the debates because they don’t have the money to campaign everywhere, giving new meaning to the debates.
Until these limits are enacted, I think it would be wise for me to declare my candidacy for President of the United States. For the 2040 election.
Written by Parish Episcopal junior Michael DeLong of Coppell and approved by the Committee to Elect Michael DeLong president.
