The Duties/Responsibilities of a Presidential Candidate

Specifically...are there any, really?

I mean in regard to the White House and the government and all that...the things that the President does and is responsible for are not shared by any candidate...not that I know of. At least not in my memory...but I'm starting to wonder...did other candidates feel compelled to make 'official' statements about state and national matters before this year?

I have been thinking about Mitt Romney going to Louisiana after the RNC and Hurricane Isaac...I'm not faulting him for that...but WHY?

And why did he make the international rounds earlier in the year?

And why did he feel it was his duty to comment on the President's handling of the incident in Libya?

I am not wanting to debate the merits of these actions and PLEASE don't turn this into an Obama-bash. There are many threads for that already.

I'm just wondering if anyone else is thinking this is new and odd and unprecedented?
It seems presumptuous, but I admit I may just not be remembering the past as clearly as it seems to me that I am.

reply to post by queenannie38


Some historical research is needed here.

Research the habits and patterns (if any) that correlate to current events at the times of past Presidential Campaigns.

I would say work backwards from the last campaigns of 2008.

Both candidates were not incumbents.

What were the habits of Obama and McCain in 2008?

Anything similar to the 2012 campaign?

Well, I some research in between writing a rebuttal for my first debate and other things...so far I haven't found McCain or Obama doing anything but campaigning in 2008. I only went back 4-5 pages, though.

reply to post by queenannie38


I found one.

CNN -- July 18, 2008 article

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is in Afghanistan on a multistop overseas trip for meetings with international leaders but with an eye on the U.S. presidential race back home.

Obama's trip, which includes visits to Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, is intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials before U.S. voters.

"This is the campaign trail via satellite -- pictures for the rhetoric back home," CNN's Candy Crowley said, adding that the trip was intended to demonstrate that Obama was up to the job of taking a lead role on the international stage.....

Obama takes campaign trail overseas

Here's one more..

PEJ Campaign Coverage Index: July 21 - 27, 2008

Barack Obama’s July 24 speech to a crowd of about 200,000 in Berlin provided a startling campaign visual to punctuate a week of remarkable media attention. A story about the event on CNN.com, complete with video, quoted the network’s European political editor saying Obama “is one of those politicians who reaches parts other politicians don’t reach.”

But not all of the coverage last week was flattering. By the time Obama concluded a week-long overseas tour intended to burnish his geopolitical credentials, some press post-mortems questioned whether adulation abroad would translate into votes at home and whether the candidate had the specifics to back up his popularity. And in a reprise of a primary-season burst of introspection, the press devoted significant attention to whether it was tilting toward the Democrat.

Whatever the tone of the coverage, Obama’s visit to the Middle East and Europe was an extraordinary media event. Coverage of the trip consumed 51% of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s Campaign Coverage Index. That was enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.) ........
Amid Charges of Bias, the Media Swarm on Obama Overseas

Perhaps one thing to keep in mind.....

Obama and McCain were both U.S. Senators during their campaigns.

McCain went overseas in 2008 also.

NYTimes -- March 23, 2008

PARIS — Senator John McCain’s trip abroad this week — which took him from the Middle East to No. 10 Downing Street to the Élysée Palace here — was more than just a Congressional fact-finding trip, or even a candidate’s attempt to appear statesmanlike.

It was also an audition on the world stage for Mr. McCain in his new role as the Republican presidential nominee. And it offered him the chance to test his hope that he could repair America’s tattered reputation by shifting course on some of the policies that have alienated its allies, in areas like global warming and torture. But he is making his foray even as he embraces what much of the world sees as the most hated remnant of the Bush presidency: the war in Iraq.

At several stops along the trip, Mr. McCain struck a markedly different tone from that of President Bush. Mr. Bush is so unpopular, even with America’s allies, that people in Britain and France told pollsters last spring that they had even less confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs than they had in President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

McCain Offers Soothing Tones in Trip Abroad

Ah, yes! Now I am beginning to recall those events of 2008.

I remember now, too, being worried that McCain was very enthused about keeping the wars going and that worried me...and thinking Obama might be more of a peacemaker.

And reading that last excerpt, it seems as if it was necessary since Bush wasn't very popular and foreign relations was so crucial then.

And it is even more so now, I think. And truthfully, I didn't see anything wrong with Romney doing his international tour, either...I do think that foreign relations is something that might be best demonstrated, especially when new to it, as any Presidential candidate might very well be, but not all of them.

And definitely a learn-as-you go type of thing...Bill Clinton seemed to have learned a lot because now he is regarded by many to be very good at that kind of thing and from what I understand, if not for him, we might not have been able to get those two women back from Iran after being arrested in that border thing.

So, I was okay with it on the foreign relations part...I should have put 'international' or something in my search box, I guess. Thanks for doing that research and posting the links.

And I guess I really didn't have any beef with the post-Isaac visit to LA by Romney...especially, again, because of Bush's contrasting behavior during his term.

But then, all this hubbub about the Libya thing started me thinking just how much is okay and is Romney overstepping his boundaries.

And this isn't an effort to say Obama was better or Romney was right but simply that it might not give the best impression to other countries...I think that no matter what personal opinions and ideas are, or how they differ...things of such a sensitive nature are hard enough to deal with without having that internal schism being exposed like that. It makes us even more of a target, perhaps?

And regardless of who is elected in November, the job doesn't officially start until inauguration in January...whether it be a new POTUS or a continuing one...there are maybe some duties of the President that should be left to the President to do, as he sees fit. When he's replaced in the Oval Office, then someone else has those duties.

Does that make sense? I hope I don't seem as if I'm bashing Romney because I'm not, really...I think his campaign manager people do a lot of this planning and stuff and maybe he's sort of thrust into positions he might not be rushing into, himself, but more like pushed into.

That is what it kind of seemed like, when I read about the funding rally in FL being postponed for a press conference.

What candidates do for their campaigns is ultimately scrutinized by the voters.

The campaign managers are the ones sifting through polls and what not to determine what actions and statements would get the most votes.

It's all about voter perception during campaigns.