Gary Johnson 2012

Every four years there is an event that shakes the world. People around the world gather around to presence and event that never fails to be memorable. No, it is not the FIFA World Cup. No, it is not the Olympics either. Why would you even consider the Winter Olympics? What I'm referring to is the elections for the President of the United States.

It is only just that an event of this magnitude gets to get all the attention it can. Because of this, the two main candidates of this election get to be on not one, not two, but three debates that are broadcasted across the world. I had the pleasure to witness the third and final debate before the elections next month and am happy to say that nothing was accomplished in those eighty minutes were the future of America was supposed to create an impact on the people. This is mostly due to how the two candidates greatly limited themselves in their use of rhetoric.

If I had to do a quick review of the entire debate, it would probably look like this:

Mitt Romney: Right now, America is at its worst condition it has ever been in every aspect. These last four years have been the worst four years of America's history. Vote for me.

Barack Obama: You have contradicted yourself in every statement. A few weeks ago, you said things completely different from what you are trying to say right now. I will now proceed to continue doing the same things that I have been doing for the last four years AKA accomplishing nothing.

In all actuality, the use of rhetoric showed to be incredibly unbalanced. The amount of blame that was used by the two candidates was so great that I was basically drowning in the forensic statements. They couldn't go two sentences without referring to something that the other did in the past. This proves to be a problem since America is currently in dire need of change, in other words, deliberative ideas. However, this need cannot be fulfilled if the people that are supposed to do this are too busy talking about the past to even give a complete idea of the future.

To give the candidates credit, they were able to make good use of ethos during the debate. When Romney started to talk about how his dad owned a car company when talking about how he supports the small companies, I couldn't help but imagine him in a pink polo with a popped collar. Too bad that this little image was quickly shattered since it was the same Mitt Romney that said that Detroit should go bankrupt.

There were also some slight glimmers of pathos when Romney said that the economy was on the "road to Greece" and when Obama identified soldiers as "young men and women" when attacking the use of the military. However, this was not able to save the debate. It was generally repetitive and uninteresting making me want Gary Johnson to be elected president.