It\’s now November 2011 and there\’s less than a year to go before the 2012 presidential election. A year is a lifetime in politics and certainly much could change between now and November 6th of 2012, so this is just a snapshot of how these 2012 presidential candidates look as of right now.

1. President Barack Obama. The right wing propaganda machine (Fox \”News\” and the rest) have been doing their best to ruin Obama\’s reputation since the day he took office. That\’s understandable enough, but what\’s really bad is that the Republican politicians in the House & Senate have shown that they are willing to sabotage our country\’s economy in order to make it less likely that Obama wins another term.

Think about how terrible that really is. They are willing to put their own short term political gain ahead of the livelihoods of millions of Americans. Remember John McCain\’s 2008 slogan? \”Country First?\” It couldn\’t be less true with these guys, today\’s \”Grand Obstructionist Party\” is putting politics first and country last. It\’s hard to imagine a more anti-American group of people than today\’s Republican Party.

Obama\’s popularity has seen better days (although since he has rebounded somewhat, it has also seen worse.) But when one steps back and looks at the big picture they see that President Obama has actually performed very well in very difficult circumstances. Blaming Obama for the bad economy of today would be like blaming FDR for the Great Depression. It\’s simply not his fault. Obama is doing everything he can to make this country a better place, it is the Republicans who are standing in the way of that progress.

2. Mitt Romney. Most pundits and political junkies (including myself) believe that Mitt Romney will end up being the Republican nominee. Not because Romney is a strong candidate because he will be one of the weakest general election candidates ever, but because the rest of the Republican presidential candidates are so incredibly bad that Romney will end up winning the nomination by default.

Romney is a weak candidate because he clearly stands for nothing. He has switched his opinion on just about every major issue during his political career which leads any reasonable person to conclude that he will say anything to get elected and that he doesn\’t actually believe any of the things he says.

Because of the Tea Party\’s influence on the Republican Party now, Romney has been moving farther and farther to the right as if he\’s running for President of the Tea Party rather than President of the United States. He has come out in favor of far right wing legislation such as the \”Personhood\” amendment and Ohio\’s anti-union bill (\”Issue 2\”) which both were voted down by a large margin. Of course after election day Romney predictably tried to pretend like he was never for the \”Personhood\” amendment in the first place (just another \”flip flop\” for Mitt.)

3. Herman Cain. Cain is not a serious candidate and not just because of his sexual harassment scandals. He is not very knowledgeable (he didn\’t even know China has nuclear weapons) his proposals are, quite frankly, ridiculous. His \”999\” tax plan would be a huge tax increase for most Americans while being a big tax cut for those who need one the least (the super rich.)

4. Newt Gingrich. Not long ago Gingrich looked like he was just going through the motions but now with Rick Perry\’s flame-out and Herman Cain\’s inevitable collapse, Gingrich is looking like he may end up being the final \”anti-Romney\” left standing. Gingrich is a terribly unlikable candidate and would be an astonishingly bad general election candidate for the Republicans, but the Tea Party voters who hate Romney don\’t seem to be all that interested in thinking about stuff like that.

I\’m not going to bother including the rest of the Republican candidates because I believe their candidacies are essentially already over. The only exception to that may be if Ron Paul decides to run as an independent or 3rd party candidate but he hasn\’t shown any willingness to do so.

Johnny Moon recommends this Presidential Candidates website for those who want to keep up with US presidential politics. It includes coverage of President Barack Obama along with the Republican candidates such as Mitt Romney.

Johnny Moon recommends http://www.ThePresidentialCandidates.US for keeping up with US presidential politics.

Author Bio: Johnny Moon recommends this Presidential Candidates website for those who want to keep up with US presidential politics. It includes coverage of President Barack Obama along with the Republican candidates such as Mitt Romney.

Category: Politics
Keywords: Politics, Presidential Candidates, 2012, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich