Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Style vs. Policy

What is it that we value in our presidential candidates? Are we informed enough about their policy to make judgements about them or are we so easily swayed by their choices in style that we overlook their policy?



I think about the election in 2012 between Romney and Obama. Obama was caught up in the middle of the Benghazi Scandal as the election loomed ever nearer. Many thought Romney would be able to take advantage of this, which he did in the first presidential debate. However Romney was caught up in issues of his own. A statement he made about "binders full of women" and "driving miles with a dog on the roof of his car" damaged his image. 


I would argue that we often overlook the actually policy issues of our candidates because the transaction costs to research them are hard. With the upcoming election, I think we should be careful about the opinions we form and how we form them.

2 comments:

  1. It's interesting how much media coverage can overcome political views. Unless a candidate has a strongly disagreeable viewpoint, they can get a lot of votes with nobody knowing exactly what their policy is.

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  2. i think you have a really good point. I know for me I get distracted by who the president is as a person rather than what they are going to do for the country. i am not sure if this is a faulty idea, it may be good it may be bad but I do feel that I need to research their actual policies better. It is easy for politicians to ruin each other's image rather than their policies. I feel that we need to focus more on their policies. Often we don't even know these policies.

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