COLUMN: Obama at top of mediocre pile

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With the 2012 election just a year away, it is time to assess the state of American national politics.

The simple assessment? Poor.

Polls show President Barack Obama is doing well against his toughest Republican opponents, beating out Mitt Romney by something like five points. However, it is still incredibly early, so a mere five points is, in all reality, very good news for Romney.

The lagging economy is not doing Obama any favors. Although most people rightfully attribute the bad economy to Obama’s predecessor, most have a sneaking suspicion he is not doing everything he could to help bring the economy back.

On the Republican side, the current front-runner and flavor of the month is Herman Cain, who appears to be the “anybody but Romney” candidate that is most acceptable. He has trouble articulating his views and is certainly not ready for prime time. He is a very solid conservative and has no trouble appealing to Republicans, however his big issue is appealing to the electorate at large.

Next on the GOP side is Romney, who cannot seem to convince Republicans he is conservative as opposed to moderate, while also defending against attacks that he is a flip-flopper. The more time passes, it looks as if he will not be the eventual nominee, as Republicans cannot stand that his health care plan for Massachusetts is incredibly similar to Obama’s national health care reform.

Finally there is poor Rick Perry, who had a meteoric rise and a precipitous fall. He is not very fond of America, which is reflected in a statement made in 2009 in which he said Texas could possibly consider seceding from the Union. He is not well-liked by Republicans because he is somewhat in favor of science, highlighted by his decision to vaccinate all middle school girls in Texas against HPV.

Then there is a general smattering of lesser-candidates. In my humble opinion, I think Michele Bachmann is going to pull off a come-from-behind victory in Iowa and eventually clench the nomination. Newt Gingrich is not going anywhere, neither is Rick Santorum (don’t Google him), nor is vanity candidate Ron Paul.

If Republicans want to win the presidency in 2012 they will nominate Mitt Romney, and even then things will be an uphill battle. If they want to be strict conservatives and nominate a candidate as such, they will go with Herman Cain, who has very little appeal with voters who trust science or have an iota of common sense.

Obama does not have impeccable approval ratings and he will find it difficult to persuade voters to re-elect him.

The one thing the president has going for him, however, is that no matter how unimpressed voters are with him, they are significantly less impressed with the Republicans.

Editor’s note: Brad O’Donnell is a former president of College Democrats.