Beginning Oct. 8 and once a week thereafter until the end of October, we will have the opportunity to see four major political debates: three with President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney going one-on-one and one debate between the two vice presidential candidates.
These debates could well be decisive in solidifying voter opinion prior to the election on Nov. 6.
One of the presidential debates will be focused on domestic issues, specifically the economy. A second debate will be over foreign policy issues. The final presidential debate will be a town hall meeting format with questions coming from the floor asked by American citizens in attendance.
The single most important question to be resolved by voters in this election is which of the presidential candidates is best suited to lead America in the next four years — critical years on a very wide range of both domestic and international issues. For the moment it seems the polls show a very tight race for the election of our next president. Just maybe the debates will be the tiebreaker in American public opinion.
The critical issue for this country boils down to which presidential candidate can and will form an administration capable of breaking the political stalemate in Washington between the Democratic Party and the GOP. In the 2010 election, American voters showed a strong sentiment toward reducing the power the Democrats gained in 2008. The GOP hopes to sustain that tide of anti-Democratic Party sentiment in 2012, and of course Democrats want to reverse that trend.
The next president will have to govern with a deeply divided Congress as we continue to struggle as a country with huge economic and international security issues. Relying on raw political power held by one party over the other is not in the best interests of all Americans, in our view.
Opinion
Our View: Waiting for the debates
- Opinion
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Other Views: Conflicts in SEC
Money talks. In the continuing dispute over the all-too-cozy relationship between the people who create and sell financial products and the people who rate their risk, the money says: Shut up and let us do what we want.
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Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
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Our View: Fixing failure
Some 1,200 injured workers will finally get the payments they are owed. In its final week in session, Missouri’s General Assembly, through bipartisan efforts, passed a solution to address the insolvency of the state’s Second Injury Fund.
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Herb B. Kuhn, guest columnist: Delaying Medicaid reform could hurt rural Missouri
The Missouri Legislature missed a rare opportunity in the just-ended session to transform Medicaid and make a real difference in the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. Rural Missouri has the most to lose from the legislature’s failure to act.
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Kevin Wilson, guest columnist: When fear wins out, so do the terrorists
I’m going to make a bold statement that’s sure to draw a lot of comments, but hear me out before reaching for the keyboard to type a rebuttal.
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Sandie Morgan, guest columnist: Unions benefit workers more than they may know
In a recent guest column (Globe, May 14), Elliott Denniston made the case for Missouri not to become a right-to-work state, and he made this case very well.
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Marta Mossburg, columnist: Maybe government is tyrannical after all
Less than two weeks ago President Obama stood in front of graduates from The Ohio State University and told them to reject those who warn of government tyranny.
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Our View: Spying on us
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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Our View: Pass on the legacy
Forty hungry members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry began gathering corn at the Rader farm near the village of Sherwood when they were ambushed by a guerrilla band of about 70 Southern sympathizers.
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Our View: Big Brother looms large
The federal government, working under the cloak of secrecy, has been having a heyday at the expense of all Americans.
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