President Barack Obama running for reelection in 2012, oh my!

So apparently earlier this morning President Barack Obama announced that he would be formally running for reelection. I think that Obama running for a second term in and of itself is not really a surprise to anyone, since the past 5 presidents have all done the same thing and are usually reelected.

What I find interesting about this is his timing. Obama has basically relaid the ground rules for presidential campaigning, by starting his campaign for president so far ahead of any of his challengers. (Note: to date, no other challengers have actually filed their federal election commission paperwork and the closest we have are educated guesses of who some of Obama's challengers may be)

Why is this so interesting to me? Well, for starters he has formally started his campaign almost a full year before anyone else! This is significant because now he can begin formally collecting campaign funds starting now as well, and he is going to need them!

Since Obama has come into office, many people have criticized his tactics in federal office. Many on the left feel he hasn't lived up to his campaign rhetoric, while at the same time folks on the right feel that he is dropping the ball and enacting socialist legislation and laws that could only be leading to a communist state. (Oh no, socialism and communism are bad aren't they? Godless heathens?!)

The truth really adds up to this, in the United States we elect representatives that are supposed to be like minded individuals that have similar morality, wants, needs, and desires, that we do so that they are able to vote and represent us appropriately in the federal government. The problem with this idea however, is that you can't please everyone all the time!

That having been said, with a 8.8 percent unemployment rating (over 3 million unemployed for you lay people out there), the drama related to Obamacare, the looming government shutdown (spooky), and everyone's issues with formal US involvement in now 3 military theatres with the addition of the United Nations mission in Libya to the "War on Terror" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has a slight uphill battle in front of him.

My prediction for 2012? Prepare to see Obama in the Whitehouse for another 4 years, (maybe with a change of vice president), other than that, I predict status quo from Washington, until people start realizing that their representation is supposed to work for them and as such, said representation should also be concerned about loosing their positions representing the nation in the event that they are doing a poor job (which the majority of Senators and Congressmen are at this point in time).