Final thoughts

Still undecided, my friends? STILL?

Two days to go… Here’s the final word:

You say the President has not lived up to his promise? We agree. We might re-iterate the list of complaints, but you already know them. We could roll out the standard retort: “the Republicans have engineered his failure by opposing all that he has attempted.” OK, but a good “leader” rises to the occasion and brings factions together. Mr. Obama is not that leader. He has resorted all too often to executive powers to achieve his ends.

Here’s what he can take credit for, though:

●          An economy still afloat after the melt-down of 2007, with unemployment falling below 8% as of November 2.

●          “Adult” and reasoned leadership in the aftermath of the Bush years, even in the face of a continual barrage of silly and distracting challenges to his citizenship and legitimacy. Contrary to reverberating claims from the right, he has offered pragmatic leadership instead of ideological mayhem.

●          Meaningful healthcare reform bringing insurance to some 40 million otherwise-uninsured.

●          Financial services regulation to rein in our abusive and renegade banking system.

●          Restored excellence of our auto makers in world markets, with an almost unimaginable concession to fuel efficiency over the next ten years.

●          Reduced costs for student loans.

●          An end to the war in Iraq and scheduled pull-out from Afghanistan.

●          Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

●          While he has increased the rate of illegal immigrant deportation, he stopped deportation of young people brought into the country by their parents.

Republicans have sought to make this an up-or-down referendum on the Obama presidency, but we must see this as a choice between the two candidates.They don't want us to look closely at their man, whom almost every prominent Republican during the primaries cast as a bad (even the worst) candidate.

While Mr. Romney “appears” to be a composed and competent business leader who may be able to bring these skills to the office, these assumptions don’t bear scrutiny. We’ve had businessman-presidents in the past, including George W. Bush, and their record is not good. Generally, business leaders don’t have to be skilled in the political arena.

Here, Mr. Romney has shown himself to be feckless. He has reversed his positions and promises time and again on most important political and social measures. While this strategy, known as “flip-flopping” in Republican circles, is poison for Democrats, it appears to be condoned by their own. In any case, we really don’t know what the man stands for. We must take on faith that he will execute his office on behalf of all the American people. This seems unlikely, given that his tax and economic agenda is geared to the right and the wealthy. Beyond that, the election process has shown him to have an extremely loose relationship with honesty. He retracts or re-words a majority of his statements, while “fact-checkers” have a field day with the rest. Do we really want a president who we know won’t be telling us the truth? WE carry the responsibility, my friends, of keeping our government in line and on track. The only  way we can accomplish our responsibility is if we have the necessary information from which to make decisions. If our government officials give us distortion and lies, our system breaks down --- from the top.

Aside from that, Romney is on the wrong side of immigration reform, gay rights, abortion, birth control, taxation, “American Exceptionalism,” and military spending. His bellicosity toward Iran leads us to conclude he will launch another insane war in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his provocative statements toward Russia, China and our major trading partners portend trade wars and even greater threats to our currency.

The numbers that he has offered on taxation and our economy starkly refuse to add up, and he has not told us the programs he plans to cut to pay for increased military budget and tax cuts for the rich. He did mention axing FEMA, however, right before Sandy. Oh wait… no, he retracted that!

In sum, Romney’s constantly-modulation positions lead us to believe that the only thing he stands for is his own election. For those who criticize Mr. Obama for spending four years running for reelection (including the Robbinsense editorial staff,) we can take heart that for him that will not recur. For Mr. Romney, though, his often-stated promises for actions on “Day-1,” including repeal of Obamacare and all federal regulations passed in the last four years, we know he will be pandering to his voting base, running for reelection right out of the blocks.

It’s easy to say that inertia of government bureaucracy will constrain either candidate, but the greatest mischief that either can inflict is in Supreme Court appointments. The next president will likely have one or even two. If you like the 18-month circus of a $2 Billion presidential election brought to us by “Citizens United”… if you feel that poor women who can’t even afford birth control, much less travel to a foreign country for abortion, should be forced to bear children, vote for Mr. Romney.

Over the last two days the hype will be intense. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear that the Republican and right-wing media message is directed at your heart. Their words will drip with moral absolutes and apocalyptic warnings. They don’t want you to consider any message that is intended to make you think.

And when you hear a person say that in "4 more years President Obama will destroy America as we know it," this is coming from a person who 8 years ago almost surely voted for George W. Bush. Good luck.