[GeneV]

Obama is a great president who performed amazingly well in one of the most difficult periods of America's history while at the same time being resisted and sabotaged every step of the way. Now the dark side hates him more, and even some who should be on his side dislike him because they only see what he wasn't able to accomplish. His biggest fault--his rosy glasses, his naive belief the other side would work with him if he compromised--has been cured after experiencing four years of the radical right's intransigence. A second term is where a savvy, hardened, realistic Obama will be most effective.

Since it was Republican philosophy (unregulated capitalism) that brought us the world financial crisis, and Republicans who lied us into warring against Iraq, there should be little doubt that electing another set of greedy liars into office would not be good for either the US or the world.

I know Jeff has asked this question as well, but the recurring question is "how is Romney/Ryan different from Bush/Cheney?"

Mondale had the same problem running against Reagan. The economy turned bad under President Carter, and got much worse during Reagan's first term, with unemployment going from 7.5% in 1980 to 10.8% in early 1983, and it had gotten barely ahead of when Reagan took over by the time of the 1984 election. However, the voters still did not want to go back to the policies of the administration in which the problem started. Mondale was in the previous administration, but Romney still hasn't repudiated the policies of the administration where the problems began.

[normhead]

I'm sorry I have not posted one anti-mormon link... list them and we can discuss:

I think seacapt is assuming that a picture of Romney holding the book of Mormon is anti-Morman. Having once had a Morman stand on my porch, back in the early 70's and tell me I could never be in a leadership role in the Morman church because I was black, let's not get too carried away about who is hurting who here. Having Romney in a picture claiming affiliation with an organization that until 40 years ago was blatantly and un-appologeticly racist? I think Romney is doing the damage with that affiliation. it has nothing to do with posted pictures. How would a picture of Obama eating watermelon be the equivalent? Romney by choice follows a faith that is not in any sense of the word mainstream. He chose to affiliate. Obama was born to a race that has been labelled with defamatory stereotypes that may or may not apply to him. he didn't choose it, it happened.

I hope you're beginning to understand the difference.

[jeffkrol]

@Pickles -to answer your question , I'm not sure Who would be best for "The World" but I believe that if Obama is elected again that American small businessmen wil drop like flies in a freezer.

Where do you come up w/ THAT crazy idea.. Maybe give me some meat to that "FUD"...............and how would Romney fix this???

Magic???? Where would the "consumers" come from to support these small businesses???

[reeftool]

In 2008 the economy began tanking. It was around late summer. By election time, my retirement savings were loosing $500 a week with no bottom in sight. Others lost a lot more than I did. Factories closed. GM and Chrysler filed bankruptcy. Banks went under. The wheels for all this were set in motion before Obama set foot in the White House. Within 6 months, things began improving. My retirement savings recovered all it lost by 2010. I am by no means a big Obama fan but the blame for what happened can by no means put on his shoulders. I think the country has come through this better than expected to this point.

Leadership and the economy are are psychological. Investment and growth stops if people are scared and hunker down. A president needs to maintain a positive course and keep the country in a positive direction. Like him or not, Reagan did that very well. The early part of the Obama administration also had a positive message and I think they have tried to maintain that although things have not improved as well as they hoped. Things seemed to have stalled out. We have 4 years of Obama to look at so his course is not an unknown. Romney is a total unknown. His speeches and policy come off as an opposite to Obama. His record as governor of Mass. would indicate that his administration would not be very different than the present one. As for the psychological leadership quality, I don't see him as the man who the country can rally behind and climb out of the rut. Once again, I have to choose between 2 guys and I really don't like either one.

[normhead]

Just read what Bain did to America while Romney was there. If the idea was to gut America so investors could make lots of money, he'd be your guy. The man doesn't have a work ethic, or a production ethic, he has an entitlement ethic. Those who have money are entitled to make more. Those who actually produce things are sacrificial lambs on the way to higher profits for the rich.

What has the man accomplished with his life, accept making money for rich people, and selling out middle class and poor people?

[les3547]

I know Jeff has asked this question as well, but the recurring question is "how is Romney/Ryan different from Bush/Cheney?"

I think it would be remarkably similar, but worse. Similar because we'd have a puppet in the President's office and because many of the same advisors will be working for Romney, and worse because the far Right will be further emboldened and empowered.

[jeffkrol]

Like him or not, Reagan did that very well.

AND spent like a drunken sailor.. "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"..Dick Cheney
and:
The Free Market: The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan
October 1988

The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan

by Sheldon L. Richman

On August 2, 1988, President Ronald Reagan announced that he had changed his mind about the pro-union plant-closing bill. He had vetoed it three months earlier, but now let it become law without his signature after intense pressure from presidential nominee George Bush and former Treasury Secretary James Baker, now Bush's campaign chairman. Reagan claimed that only this action would enable him to sign a Congressional trade bill almost unequaled in its anti-consumer protectionism.

Ronald Reagan's faithful followers claim he has used his skills as the Great Communicator to reverse the growth of Leviathan and inaugurate a new era of liberty and free markets. Reagan himself said, "It is time to check and reverse the growth of government."

Yet after nearly eight years of Reaganism, the clamor for more government intervention in the economy was so formidable that Reagan abandoned the free-market position and acquiesced in further crippling of the economy and our liberties. In fact, the number of free-market achievements by the administration are so few that they can be counted on one hand—with fingers left over.

BUT you are right. Congress created gridlock, to the economies deficit, and has effectively blamed it on Obama........... at least to the "masses"... This is a sad morality play where, as usual lately, the guilty go free and the rest pay for it..........

[Tom S.]

You are 100% correct about Romney and Obama . I am a retired from the USPS and only a brain dead person in my position would vote for a Republican.

I fully understand your position, but here's a conundrum for you. The UAW represents the majority of the auto workers in the US, and most often supports Democratic candidates. Yet many democratic candidates and their supporters buy foreign made vehicles. Republicans and their supporters on the other hand often drive US brand vehicles, yet wish to get rid of the Union and take away the auto worker's wages and benefits.

So on the one hand, you have people who want your vote but won't buy your product and on the other hand, you have people who want your vote but want to cut your pay and benefits.

[jeffkrol]

I fully understand your position, but here's a conundrum for you. The UAW represents the majority of the auto workers in the US, and most often supports Democratic candidates. Yet many democratic candidates and their supporters buy foreign made vehicles. Republicans and their supporters on the other hand often drive US brand vehicles, yet wish to get rid of the Union and take away the auto worker's wages and benefits.

So on the one hand, you have people who want your vote but won't buy your product and on the other hand, you have people who want your vote but want to cut your pay and benefits.

They just want a cheaper american car............ Frugality you know..

[gokenin]

I fully understand your position, but here's a conundrum for you. The UAW represents the majority of the auto workers in the US, and most often supports Democratic candidates. Yet many democratic candidates and their supporters buy foreign made vehicles. Republicans and their supporters on the other hand often drive US brand vehicles, yet wish to get rid of the Union and take away the auto worker's wages and benefits.

So on the one hand, you have people who want your vote but won't buy your product and on the other hand, you have people who want your vote but want to cut your pay and benefits.

I can't comment for the whole Republican party but for myself I don't thinke it's completely anti-union, there are places that unions should exist namely in private industry where they serve a purpose to protect the average workers safety,working conditions and wages. I do however have issues with them in the public sector as they have an unfair leverage as the people that they negotiate with for benefits tend to be elected officials that live and die by the whim of voters and public unions have the ability to effect elections making it difficult for elected officials to stand up to unions. That's my two cents about unions anyway

[les3547]

The early part of the Obama administration also had a positive message and I think they have tried to maintain that although things have not improved as well as they hoped. Things seemed to have stalled out. We have 4 years of Obama to look at so his course is not an unknown.

What I don't understand is people who've lived awhile not understanding how long recovery from a near, if not actual, depression can take.

Let's say you were on a ship that hits an iceberg because the captain was asleep at the helm. They crew chooses a new captain to deal with the life-threatening emergency. Before the accident, you had a beautiful cabin and spent all your time in comfort. But now, with the ship sinking, power loss, people panicking, food supplies ruined, water scarce, not enough life boats (because the former administration thought everyone should bring their own lifeboat), and other miseries, your life style isn't so hot.

The new captain has to save the ship before all else, so you continue to do without while he finds a way to repair the hole in the ship. It takes weeks. You can't see all the shoring up work being done, all you know is your cabin is cold and you are hungry. A lot of other people feel the same way and so want to put the old captain back in charge because they remember that at least they had heat and food while he was captain. Of course, the old captain likes to sleep at the wheel.

Kenafein earlier posted an excellent list of Obama's accomplishments that is 200 items long, it should be required reading for anyone sitting on the fence. The work being done now is both correcting the huge damage done by the last administration AND setting things up for a new direction. We need to retool, and we can't do that if we put the greedy bunch back in charge. We might not yet realize how this work will eventually show up as benefits to us, but we all should try to see more than just how we've been personally inconvenienced during the work. From the preface to the list:

If you're one of those who thinks President Obama is a "disappointment," my condolences for you not getting your unicorn. And it's time to grow up, and get over it. . . . What makes the "disappointment" argument even more irritating is that it's simply not true. He's done nearly everything we elect a president to do, and he did it all with little support from the left, and massive obstruction from the right. . . . What does matter is that this president has compiled a STELLAR recordm given the circumstances under which he took office. If you can look at this list of the president's accomplishments and not be excited, you have a serious problem with perspective.

[ihasa]

I do however have issues with them in the public sector as they have an unfair leverage as the people that they negotiate with for benefits tend to be elected officials that live and die by the whim of voters and public unions have the ability to effect elections making it difficult for elected officials to stand up to unions.

Are they more or less influential than big business? I hear that corporations also have a dubious closeness with politicians... perhaps even more so

[gokenin]

Are they more or less influential than big business? I hear that corporations also have a dubious closeness with politicians... perhaps even more so

Private sector union strikes against a company the owner can't be fired in a election. Public union strikes against the government and the elected officials can be voted out and unions can significantly influence public elections. Tends to make elected officials that want to keep there jobs vote the unions way. That's my take on it anyway

[jogiba]

I fully understand your position, but here's a conundrum for you. The UAW represents the majority of the auto workers in the US, and most often supports Democratic candidates. Yet many democratic candidates and their supporters buy foreign made vehicles. Republicans and their supporters on the other hand often drive US brand vehicles, yet wish to get rid of the Union and take away the auto worker's wages and benefits.

So on the one hand, you have people who want your vote but won't buy your product and on the other hand, you have people who want your vote but want to cut your pay and benefits.

It's 2012 and this is a world economy and I buy the best product for my money and my car is a Honda Fit and my motorcycle is a Kawasaki ZX-11 with both made in Japan like my Pentax 67, Pentax 8x32 ED binoculars etc. The Republicans like Darrell Issa are trying to screw me with my USPS CSRS retirement after 3 years in the Army and 28 1/2 years in the USPS.

Listening to Issa, you’d never know that the post office’s immediate crisis is largely of Congress’s own making. Conservatives aren’t wrong to say that the shift toward electronic mail – what USPS calls “e-diversion” – poses a challenge for the Postal Service’s business model. (The recent drop-off in mail is also a consequence of the recession-induced drop in advertising.)

But even so, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, the post office would have made an operational profit, if not for a 75-year healthcare “pre-funding” mandate that applies to no other public or private institution in the United States.

Warren Gunnels, aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders, calls that mandate “the poison pill that has hammered the Postal Service … over 80 percent of the Postal Service deficit since that was enacted was entirely due to the pre-funding requirement.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/154596/how_darrell_issa_and_the_right_are_plan...s._post_office

I can't believe how clueless people are about the USPS. It's not about email , it's about the Postal Regulatory Commission that is trying to kill the USPS. If UPS and FedEx were under the same BS they would be out of business. Order a DVD , memory card, USB thumb drive from any online dealer like Amazon and see who delivers it. I have never had UPS or FedEx deliver that to me. I bet most items ordered on ebay are shipped by the USPS.

The PAEA stipulates that the USPS is to take any surplus at the end of a fiscal year, and put that amount into the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund to prepay for employees retirement costing the USPS a total of 500 billion dollars between 2007 and 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Regulatory_Commission#Changes_under_the_...06_-_H.R._6407

[reeftool]

What I don't understand is people who've lived awhile not understanding how long recovery from a near, if not actual, depression can take.

Let's say you were on a ship that hits an iceberg because the captain was asleep at the helm. They crew chooses a new captain to deal with the life-threatening emergency. Before the accident, you had a beautiful cabin and spent all your time in comfort. But now, with the ship sinking, power loss, people panicking, food supplies ruined, water scarce, not enough life boats (because the former administration thought everyone should bring their own lifeboat), and other miseries, your life style isn't so hot.

The new captain has to save the ship before all else, so you continue to do without while he finds a way to repair the hole in the ship. It takes weeks. You can't see all the shoring up work being done, all you know is your cabin is cold and you are hungry. A lot of other people feel the same way and so want to put the old captain back in charge because they remember that at least they had heat and food while he was captain. Of course, the old captain likes to sleep at the wheel.

Kenafein earlier posted an excellent list of Obama's accomplishments that is 200 items long, it should be required reading for anyone sitting on the fence. The work being done now is both correcting the huge damage done by the last administration AND setting things up for a new direction. We need to retool, and we can't do that if we put the greedy bunch back in charge. We might not yet realize how this work will eventually show up as benefits to us, but we all should try to see more than just how we've been personally inconvenienced during the work. From the preface to the list:

I think much of the problems we have faced in the past 2 years is a direct result of the awful performance of congress and not the Obama administration. I think the voters should spend more time considering who they send to the House and Senate than who sits in the White House. Although not a Democrat or Liberal, the Republican policy of allowing the country to tank for the sole reason of making the Obama administration look bad gives me reason not to vote for them. Like it or not, we're all in this together. There is a large group of the Republican leadership that doesn't get it.