Be sure to vote your mind on November 2nd – even if your candidate is not showing well in the polls. Do you realize most of the polls are done on land lines? Well over 23 percent of Americans have given up their landlines according to the Wall Street Journal (the number is going to be higher in states that were hit hard by the recession). I don’t know anyone under 30 years old that has a landline. I don’t have one, do you?
Two of the well known polling companies are Gallop and Rasmussen. Gallop’s website said they took a sample of 850 landlines, and 150 cell phones. Rasmussen uses all land lines. So I don’t believe they are capturing accurate numbers – especially with younger voters.
I think the polls are especially wrong with younger candidates. Let’s look at the example of two young Senate candidates from Florida: Kendrick Meek and Marco Rubio. Kendrick is only 44 years old, has an excellent website, and mobilized social networking to get his message out. But, the polls show him only at 20 percent – a very low number by anyone’s standards. Marco Rubio is younger at 39 years old, but the website isn’t as good. Marco appeals to older voters, so his numbers in the polls are high. However, I don’t agree with this assessment (I’m not saying I endorse either); I just think because the polls don’t call mobile phones they don’t have an accurate count of the numbers.
I voted in Palm Beach County during the 2002 Presidential elections and I pulled the ‘chad’ from my ballot. I pulled it out after looking into the light above and realizing it could get stuck on the ballot as if I never voted. Needless to say, it was a crazy day, and turned into a crazy election. But, ALL VOTES DID MATTER! And in this election, yours will too!
When you do pull the voting lever (or whatever your state uses), be sure to vote for the person who can do the best job to represent you and your area. Imagine you’re hiring for a corporation, what attributes would you look for in the perfect candidate?
The President runs the government. What does that mean? It means he/she is in charge of the Departments. of Energy, Agriculture, Homeland Security, CIA, Defense, etc., etc., etc Yes, the office suggests policy to the Congress, but the President doesn’t run the Congress. This person needs to have a strong leadership background – preferably a CEO of a major corporation. (Look America, we voted in a great guy, but he clearly doesn’t have the experience we need in a President. Of course, we have to wait two years to fix this and maybe he’ll be better trained by then.)
A Governor runs your state. Also, the governmental departments in your state – including the very important prison system. And, all of the state level departments. Again, we want a strong CEO background here!
The Senate: think of the Senate as upper management in a corporation. They have various committees which need to work together to form consensus opinions to get issues to the general Senate to vote on. No one Senator is able to push through their personal agenda, and all the Senators need to work together. So, what we don’t want is a CEO, they’ll be miserable and never be able to get anything done. We want someone with a proven track record of working in compromise situations.
The House of Representatives: think of these 435 Members as middle-management and remember they only serve two years. This is the place to experiment. They are easy to vote out and here they learn the art of compromise that our forefathers set up in our Constitution.
We all love our country, but there are fundamental economic problems which need to be fixed. Either Democrat or Republican, these problems won’t go away, so we need to elect officials with solutions, not more problems. We need people with a clear plan and the background that proves they can turn things around; solid corporate experience may be the ticket in these upcoming elections.
November 2, 2010 will be an interesting day!!!
Gwendolyn Beck started her finance career on the bond trading floor. She then moved to stocks and IPO with Morgan Stanley and personal financial planning with Wachovia. She wrote “Flirting with Finance”, a fictional novel, for a fun way for women to learn about finance through all the relationships and events we may have in our lives. “Flirting with Finance” is available through Barnes & Noble. You can contact Gwendolyn at www.flirtingwithfinances.com.
