LITTLE BY LITTLE By Matthew Little—Bashing Obama not much of a campaign platform

It is becoming increasingly clear that before the Republican Party can even hope to present a competitive political candidate as a meaningful choice for President of the United States, it must first find a meaningful platform upon which to run. Such a necessity could not be clearer than what we saw of their initial presidential candidates’ debate held on Friday, August 12 in Ames, Iowa.

Rather than the candidates displaying their individual qualities and fitness for becoming heir to the highest administrative office in the land, the debate quickly began to disintegrate into a contest of who could best demonize the present holder of that office (Obama).

All eight of the contestants on stage indulged. The results were to be determined at a straw poll to be held the next day.

The result, as expected, turned out to be the candidate who had been most effective in the contest to belittle the president. To no one’s surprise, the winner was our own Michele Bachmann, whose entire campaign has been fashioned not on what she will do right for the betterment of the country if elected, but rather on the inadequacies of the Obama administration.

By the same token, running true to form, the biggest loser was the candidate who was least efficient in the vilification of the president. He just happened to have been our own former governor, Tim Pawlenty.

Prior to the debate he had taken a much softer approach in the condemnation of President Obama. However, at the debate he apparently found it expedient to become more vocal in denouncing him as being responsible for everything wrong in America.

However, that stance came too late. The straw poll rated him a distant third, so far behind his fellow statesperson (Bachmann) that he felt compelled to withdraw from the race altogether.

In the meantime, the incident has boosted the Bachmann image. She appears on all of the major magazines, the TV talk shows, and every national news media in the country. Several scribes are predicting her to become the Republican’s leading candidate to oppose Barack Obama in next year’s election.

This corner is not one of them. I can’t help but have the feeling that sooner or later voters will tire of the same old rhetoric of simply blaming Obama for all the problems of the entire universe, and begin to demand that candidates declare what they will do if elected.

That will present an entirely new paradigm for Rep.Bachmann — one that she is going to have a difficult time adjusting to.

Matthew Little welcomes reader responses to mlittle@spokesman-recorder.com.