We are in for a rough ride.

This election is going to become dirtier than any before it. The negative attacks have been a pattern in politics for a long time. However, we are going where we have never been before. An ad that links Presidential candidate Romney to the death of a woman was aired recently. I have not seen the ad but that does not matter. What does matter is that ideas like that are making it difficult, if not impossible to remain an independent. Ads like this leave no middle ground. No room for compromise. This trend may have already been in place and this ad just takes the next step. What is more concerning is that because this pattern is becoming so extreme, it is becoming more difficult to concentrate on the meaningful issues of the day. The issues of Immigration, the economy of the U.S. and the world, the rise of Islamic nationalism, just to name a few. These issues are still here and what are we hearing about them? How the other guy is responsible. No more, “The buck stops here”. Not exactly an American concept. President Obama is CHANGING America alright. What is a major concern here is that President Obama cannot afford to lose this election. The CHANGE is incomplete. Much of the action that has been taken over the past 3 and ½ years can be undone. This is unacceptable to President Obama. All that hard work wasted? He cannot allow that to happen. On top of this, I just cannot see President Obama being a graceful loser. The CHANGE must be permanent. The best way to do that is to win the election. President Obama has demonstrated a remarkable ability to skirt the Constitution. This is particularly true concerning limits on Presidential powers. This is where his strength is and I expect him to use it fully. CHANGE has the benefit of allowing any limits to be moved or stretched or eliminated altogether. CHANGING the rules of the game has lots of advantages. This leads me to believe that this election is going to become very ugly. (We have not even reached the debates yet.) President Obama cannot afford to let what happened to President Carter happen to him. He needs more distractions. He needs BIG distractions. The stage is set for cheating like we have never seen before. “We need to pass this bill so that YOU can find out what it does.” OK, apply this concept to the election. What will be off limits with this type of thinking? Not much, if anything. CHANGE indeed.