After three days of formalities, festivities and factual errors, the Republican National Committee wrapped up last night. The confetti has been swept away, the politicians have boarded their flights and the attendees have cleared the floor.
But there is still one elephant in the room.
What still lingers is interparty tension, not to mention the ambiguity when it comes to swing state's stance on Mitt Romney, who is already fighting for the independent and grassroots vote sans Ron Paul endorsement.
Enter Paul Ryan, who accepted the GOP's nomination for Vice President on Wednesday and who's brought excitement with him. Thirty five percent of the GOP was excited about the choice between Romney come November prior to the VP nod according to Rasmussen Reports. Now, 61 percent are anticipating pulling the level for Romney-Ryan.
But Ryan's speech at the RNC is being referred to as "dazzling, deceiving and distracting," and the concept of dazzle seems to be key for this election.
In one corner is President Barack Obama, the charismatic rock star of a candidate. He's been on the Late Show with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. The people running his campaign are tech-savvy enough to pander through Tumblr and Twitter, and even the POTUS himself took to Reddit this week to answer questions and concerns.
In the other corner is Mitt Romney, who is still figuring out how to give a speech without offending at least one special interest group.
But why does any of this matter? Should Ryan be expected to fly to New York to hash it out with Stephen Colbert? Should Romney increase his social media presence to appear in touch?
The answer is yes.
The younger generation is clearly more drawn to the candidate - to charisma, to clever speeches and to how they sell themselves. They want somebody they can relate to, somebody who will understand.
And that way, if the candidate has nothing to say, he can continue to say nothing. Nobody will even notice because of how cool and hip he is.
The two-party system has been lovingly referred to by comedians as being made up of the party of dumb ideas (Republican) and the party of no ideas (Democrat Party). What's been happening in politics in recent months is the greatest example of our two parties playing the game - of using charisma to cover up party regression and standstill.
At this point it's hard to tell which way the election is going to swing since polls are pretty much even, but what is for certain is the candidates are going to try to out-cool each other. Romney now has the 42-year-old Ryan to put into the spotlight for the youth vote, and Obama can continue to feed off of social media. It might even cover up some of the gaffes the Republican Party has made and deter voters from lack of innovation from the Democrats.
It's a lot easier to cover the fact you don't have any ideas than to cover up your dumb ideas, especially if you're telling them on television.
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
