Sometimes I think I am living in an alternate universe.
With our country’s real unemployment rate – those unable to find work or who stopped looking - at more than 15%; with gas prices at nearly $ 4.00 per gallon; with our national debt at more than $ 16 trillion; and with our embassies being attacked by Muslim extremists around the world, I cannot comprehend how President Barack Obama has any possibility of winning another four year term from American voters.
Yet when I read the Miami Herald, the Sun-Sentinel, or watch CNN or any of the NBC family of networks (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, or Telemundo), this campaign is not about how badly our country is doing or how Obama’s policies have contributed to our decline. Instead it seems to be about weekly Democratic talking points and distractions targeted at Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan.
When the terrible August unemployment numbers were released, I could find no mention or analysis of them in the Sun-Sentinel while the pundits on MSNBC’s popular Morning Joe show actually said the drop in the rate from 8.2% to 8.1% was good for Obama because it continued his streak of job growth. The talking point was that his policies had created 4.5 million jobs in the last 27 months. The reality is that the rate dropped because hundreds of thousands of Americans stopped looking for work and that overall Obama’s economy has created only 300,000 net jobs since he took office.
When the Democratic National Convention platform originally left out the word God and made no mention of Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, the media quickly covered for Obama by saying he was unaware of the proposed platform and had it changed. Yet Obama’s own staff originally said the platform reflected his views. The media even tried to cover for our local Congressman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who called it simply a “technical oversight”.
While the media has done its best to dissect Romney’s Vice-Presidential pick Paul Ryan’s Congressional votes and speeches, they have continued to give a pass to Joe Biden who has been perhaps the most embarrassing Vice-President in my lifetime. Why was so little – if any – analysis given to Biden’s remark that Romney-Ryan would put “y’all back in chains” when speaking to a mostly black group? Yet every perceived gaffe by Romney or Ryan has lead network new casts for days.
Even by Obama’s own standards, he should be a one-term President since he has not been able to get the unemployment rate down to his targeted 5% or get the country on the right track. Yet many national polls show him with an above the error margin lead over Romney and with a sizeable lead in predicted Electoral College votes.
How can this be?
In my opinion there are several reasons why President Obama is not being chased out of office.
A friend of mine whose family escaped from a communist takeover of their country forty years ago says it best. “The people want to eat and will vote for the guy who will give them food.” So when nearly 47,000,000 Americans rely on the Obama Administration for food stamps - a shocking 100% increase from when Obama took office – it is no wonder that a large percentage of those unfortunate Americans will vote for Obama because they wrongly fear that Romney will let them starve.
When 54,000,000 Americans rely on Medicaid for their healthcare – a 60% increase since the Obama Administration took office – why would they not vote for the candidate promising to expand Medicaid coverage and increase their healthcare choices if Obamcare goes into full force in 2014 despite its unprecedented cost?
Since more than 50% of working Americans pay no federal income taxes, why would they vote for Mitt Romney if Obama’s spin meisters and their friends in the media continue to falsely claim that middle class families will see their federal taxes increase by $ 2,000 if Romney gets elected? Many have enjoyed labeling Romney “Richie Rich” or “Mr. 1%” because of his earned wealth while barely focusing on Obama’s class warfare and anti-business “You Didn’t Built It” attacks on small business people
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Unfortunately, President Obama has a high probability of staying in office not because of his economic or foreign policy successes but rather because of his growth of the self-fulfilling Entitlement Society.
Of course there are many Obama voters who think that President Obama has, in fact, done a commendable job the past four years and deserves to win. They say the stock market is at a record high thanks to his economic stewardship. That he has performed as good as possible given the bad deck of cards he was given when he took office. And that American prestige worldwide is on the mend.
The reality is that the stock market is doing well not because of corporate earnings and rosy outlooks but because of the cheap money and devaluation of our currency by Obama’s Federal Reserve team. Low interest rates and cheap money sets a very low hurdle for short-term investments and since stock market investments have decent liquidity, why not do the trade? As a result, almost every equity, commodity, and credit market is moving higher.
And let’s talk about that bad deck of cards Obama was given. Yes he did inherit a troubled financial system and the resulting loss of millions of American jobs. But I am tired of hearing that it was “Bush’s fault”. The reality is that the financial crisis occurred because of Democratic policies implemented in the Carter and Clinton years! It was the Democrats that forced banks to loan to sub-prime mortgage candidates. And it was the Democrats who cheered and forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to guarantee those loans even when Bush and Republicans tried to stop the madness.
Yes, President George W. Bush did engage in two expensive wars and yes, President Bush did sign into law the unfunded – but popular - Medicare Prescription Drug Program but President Obama has created more debt in his four years in office than Bush did in his eight! And President Obama has no plan to stop the borrowing.
As for his foreign policy successes? Obama said the Muslim world would start to love America because he had lived overseas amongst Muslims in his youth. His conceited belief is that he started the Arab Spring which is quickly turning into a cold Arab Winter around the world. Then there is his failure to stop Iran from its war grade nuclear program. And lastly, who can forget Obama pleading with Russia to wait until his second term when he can be more flexible in unilaterally disarming our missile defense systems!
You might be wondering why I will be voting for Mitt Romney this coming November other than he is not Obama? My reasons are simple. Mitt is the kind of proven business leader we need to help our capitalist economy again be the engine for job growth and prosperity for all. He will lead trade missions to promote our country’s goods and will push for new trade agreements unlike Obama who has focused on redistribution of wealth within our country to fund his programs. Mitt will also not lead from behind when it comes to foreign policy as Obama has done. Mitt will stand by our allies and promote westernized democracies throughout the world. And Mitt will gut most of the economically disastrous parts of Obamacare including its penalties and taxes and encourage the free market to innovate new healthcare models including interstate buying groups for individuals and small businesses.
Since this is the last issue before many of you will be voting in this coming November’s elections, I also wanted to write a few words about several other important races which affect us all. If Mitt Romney is to succeed as President, he will need to put current Senate leader Harry Reid on the back bench. In order to do so, we need to fire Obama’s lackey in the Senate, Bill Nelson who has voted 98% with Obama, and elect Connie Mack as our junior Senator from Florida.
We again have the chance to retire Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from her Congressional seat but unless her Democratic supporters in her district finally agree that she has taken them for granted and no longer represents their values while she has run the national Democratic Party, there is little chance that her opponent Karen Harrington will unseat her although my vote will certainly be with Karen!
With regards to State races, it is probable that Democrats Rick Stark and Katie Edwards will win their races to represent much of the readership of DRW Magazine given the higher number of Democrats than Republicans in their legislative districts. Rick is my insurance agent so I know that his fiscal conservative beliefs will represent us well in Tallahassee while Ms. Edwards learned her values from growing up in a successful small business family and from representing agricultural interests at the Dade Farm Bureau. Hopefully neither Rick nor Katie will be as overtly partisan as former State Representative Martin Kiar who won a seat as a County Commissioner unopposed.
Please be sure to vote in November so that you can have a say about the direction of our country and state!
