What defines “cool” today? Cool is one of the few terms in the English language that has proven to significantly change in definition on a near monthly basis.

 Do clothes or style define cool? Perhaps what type of vehicle you drive proves how cool you are? Do the people you hang out with around school make you cool?

Or maybe, your political views are what illustrate just how cool you are.

In the past, Democrats were viewed as the vocal minority groups against social endeavors such as the Vietnam War, racism throughout the United States, or the manifest of their society. Cool was protest. Cool Democratic voters were young and optimistic yet flawed by impracticality with their unrealistic ideas for how the country should be run.

The more patient Republicans encompassed the majority. The majority was more experienced, more dated. These were the parents of the young and defiant Democratic Party. Calm and indulgent the mute majority relied less on protest and more on reliability on those already in charge to enforce the ideals that they felt were necessary for the country to prosper.

Today we live in an age where predicting what new trend before the next person deems more importance than societal issues. The 60’s brought R&B, the 70’s brought disco, 80’s rock, 90’s hip-hop, and finally now dubstep?  Through decades of change, cool has become intensively more defiant against the previous culture’s views of normality.

In a time where issues such as homosexuality and abortion are two substantial societal issues, there are two extreme differences in opinion by age group. They are the young, cool, and liberal vs. the old, plain, and conservative.

How does this relate to politics? Good president or not, Barack Obama is considered the leader of cool. He is the first African-American president who plays basketball and hangs out with the celebrities on the weekends. Obama is perhaps one of the most celebrated presidents this country has seen. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, wrote three books, and won a Grammy just for his voice on an audio book.

Tell me that doesn’t sound cool. What has Romney done recently that compares to that? I’ll tell you: nothing.

Don’t get me wrong-Romney has his fair share of accomplishments that don’t really hold much resonance to cool America. Fourteen years Obama’s senior, Romney is a plain businessman from Michigan. After graduating from Stanford University he helped lead the business Bain & Company from financial ruin. His net worth is between 190-250 million and he is an active member of the Church of Jesus-Christ Latter Day Saints.

Those are all great accomplishments, but none of which can relate to any person that the term “cool” would matter to today at all. Cut and dry, Romney duplicates the admirable yet non-distinct American success story that we are all familiar with today.

Statistics show that in the 2008 election 66 % of people ages eighteen to twenty-nine voted for Barack Obama compared 45% of citizens forty-five and up. They also reveal that 70% of Gay/Lesbian voters elected Obama president compared to the 30% that voted for McCain.

The cool won that round, but will they win again?

Surprisingly, the polls today say that it is a tight race between the cool Obama and boring Romney. Maybe the mute majority is becoming more vocalized about their ideals or maybe Obama is simply losing the support that he once had.

Either or, this election may prove to do away with the leader of cool and start again with the conventional leaders of tradition and dullness.