A little piece about politics today.
This is a fun election coming up, because it’s going to be close and brutal. The Super PACs are going to chew up both sides and leave them for dead. Politics ain’t beanbag.
The Presidential race is what I am wrestling with. I voted for Obama in 2008 because I wanted to see a black President in my lifetime and because McCain, who I preferred as a candidate, was stupid and desperate enough to pick Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Today, I am undecided.
Obama’s record is a mixed bag, for sure. He made bad choices when he took office by allowing the Congressional Democrats free reign to blow untold billions of dollars on pork. Then the Republicans took a hopelessly negative counter response.
On the other hand, he passed a health care law that has the potential to improve life for a lot of people. We do not know the cost, but I am taking a wait-and-see attitude on this one. The Supreme Court may overturn it, which could give the next Administration a chance to make it better.
Obama passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which helped business, and despite a lot of bad things happening, the economy has improved a lot. If we ask the simple question, “Are we better off now than we were four years ago?” I can absolutely say, yes. Economically, the country is far better off.
The controversial U.S. automaker bailouts must be considered a big success. GM and Chrysler are doing well. You can be an ideologue and complain, but in reality the attempt to save the auto industry worked better than anyone expected.
Mitt Romney is a disappointing Republican candidate, as he isn’t the mobilizing charismatic symbol of change that we need. He is an unauthentic technocrat, but he has a great record as a doer, which I respect. He has a completely different vibe than Obama, who I would love to shoot hoops with. Romney seems like a Mormon Al Gore.
I really want to vote Republican in November – I believe in business and in an efficient, smaller government. The Social Conservatives scare me about as much as the Leftists and Greens.
So, as of June 1, 2012, I am officially on the fence for this election. Obama is weak but Romney has no vision and seems to lack commitment to a single set of political principles. He is against the health care legislation he fought for as Governor of Massachusetts.
Normally, I like gridlock in Washington, but the vicious partisan gridlock we have now is pernicious. We need a grand compromise on spending reductions, including the military budget, and shared pain on taxes. But neither guy nor party seems to have the guts or leadership to get us where we need to go.
I am waiting – probably right into November – to make up my mind. How about you?
Question: Is the United States better off today than it was four years ago?
92 Comments
The gaping lack of citation and fact-checking going on in these responses is mind-numbing. Would you people actually read what Lloyd has to say instead of acting like partisan shills? If ANY of you think EITHER party has your best interests in mind, you’re the mistaken ones. Instead we just have two sports teams being followed blindly by their supporters who do nothing but parrot the talking points of their respective side. The stuff I’m reading here is just ridiculous.
I’m no fan of democrats or Obama at this point but I’m also a straight man under the age of 30 and grew up in an era where being gay is perfectly socially acceptable, or should be. Human beings are human beings and we all have the same rights, or should. The only, and I mean absolute only reason to be against gay marriage comes from religion, and religious laws have NO authority in the American government. I simply cannot vote for a party or its representatives that favors limiting the civil rights of American citizens. You’re free to believe what you will about religious unions and no one is forcing ministers to marry gay couples. However, that document you sign at the courthouse is a CIVIL document, it is a CIVIL institution and it is 100% removed from any religious authority and thus there is no legitimate reason to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.
You can say whatever you want about the specific language in the constitution but when the constitution was drafted there were no explicit protections for black people or women either. Should we ignore those as well? No, that would be ridiculous and in 50 years when they look back at the gay marriage debate they will look at the opposition the same way we today look at those people who stood in the way of the black civil rights movement.
In the end, I’ll probably be voting for Ron Paul, who wouldn’t federally regulate marriage at all.
Also here’s a bit of information everyone could do to observe. THE PRESIDENT ACTUALLY HAS VERY LITTLE EFFECT ON OUR ECONOMY. Our inept congress(BOTH parties) on the other hand….
Sorry, Lloyd, but if you picked Obama just to see a black president, THAT was kinda stupid. McCain and even Sarah Palin would have done a much better job than this nimrod and his befuddled sidekick, blathering Biden.
Alas, I know you are also a Cub fan, so rooting for the helpless, hapless and hope-less comes naturally to ya.
Hope you realize this is all in jest. Now jest come to your senses and vote Romney.
Tim Daro
President
Bernard & Company
Ad/PR agency in Chicagoland
…and big fan of the first-place White Sox! (you sure you’re on the South Side?)
…
Its gonna be a landslide.
As a South Carolina shop owner, that first hand watched what this administration tried to do at Boeing. No way I could support this pro Union bunch.
We are heavily tied to medical devices and Obama is after this this industry as well.
I certainly hope this is a one term president.
Democrats blew untold trillions…
Obamacare may improve the lives of some but the cost will be borne by the people who already work to have healthcare or choose to pay for it. It is unconstitutional to force it on us as well. It could be a great new safety net if put together correctly. Let’s leverage the private healthcare system to make it a really good program. The gov’t has never been successful at ANYTHING they’ve been involved in. A healthcare system done correctly could help encourage someone like me to go out and start a business, knowing that I have some benefits to offset the possible lack of income and the risk.
Obama is dangerous for the country. I had high hopes in 2008 but at this point I feel he should be ashamed of his performance.
Lloyd: You can discuss all the standard problems of our country and economy, but I want to address actions that have a long term and deadly affect. Right now, this administration is loaded with hobby warriors and they have turned our security system into a sieve. The politicizing of Osama and loose lips got a cooperating doctor 33 years in jail and one more reason not to cooperate with our intelligence services. They bragged about an insert in the bomb making cell. How easy do you think it will be to get more cooperation. Over the past three years we have blown almost every cover. The worst action by Obama was to initiate the Libya action. Obama was well briefed on the heat seeking missiles (Manpads) They were warned continually to do something to restrict access to this store. First, they think that there were only 20,000 missiles when that was the quantity in 1989. We blew it completely. A team of a dozen spec-ops dropped into the storage would have secured it. We have spent over $40.0 million to buy back about 5000 of the missiles, the rest are in the hands of terrorists or arms dealers who will sell them to terrorists. Terrorists can sit just outside an airport and shoot down an air liner as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel. Don’t fly too often and especially to the middle east. It will be just as easy to take a jumbo down at OHare or LAX. Are we better off. Not if you want to fly.
Lloyd I couldn’t resist…
If you voted for Obama in ’08 to prove you weren’t racist, please vote… for anybody else in ’12, to prove you’re not stupid!
Romney put his investments in a blind trust years ago. It’s good enough to provide him with $25,000,000 + yearly, good enough to move money to the Cayman Islands and give his wife “a couple of Escalades” to drive around and good enough to put an elevator for his cars in his garage. Blind trust. He supposedly doesn’t know where that money is invested.
So ever since he left Bain Capital, he hasn’t HAD a JOB. Hasn’t worked for almost 8 years. NO JOB. Romney wants us to believe that owning and running a capital investment company somehow qualifies him as a job creator. OK – private sector jobs. Sure he layed off people and shut down unprofitable companies, but each time he made money off the deal – otherwise he wouldn’t have been successful.
Romney’s for less government. Translation: LAY OFF government workers. SHould be no problem for Mitt, he’s done it many times before. But what happens to all those people? Where do they get jobs? At Staples for 8 bucks an hour? Creating jobs in the private sector is no where close to creating jobs once you are president unless you start up the draft again and put all those young men and women back in the military.
Mitt has no clue how the middle class lives. Someone needs to ask Mitt – how much is a gallon of milk? He won’t have any clue.
Voters! Just look at our indebtedness to China and shake with fear. Votre Republican and hope Congress will do something to get us out of that mess.
Without reading other comments or opinions;
Honestly, yes its time to change presidents. Always with a changing of the guards there is hope sparked and general excitement about the “IDEA” of change. Thats healthy for people that know the next guy is not a miracle worker- and dreams are nice- and well, yeah- lets all get rallied about something like “big change” and when the race is over and the supporters settle down, the dust clears…. the supporters are not around.
The public loves a good hanging, loves to mob, but when it comes down to the work to follow though with the change, it is NOT the president that can do it. Hes only one dude. Sure he has a super title, and is overly emphasized to be a leader when in reality is the face behind the TREMENDOUS team of our country; Dept of Defense, US Treasury, Congress, all the way to FEMA and every other Federal entity, US entity down to the local city worker…. He is the SCAPEGOAT for when $*** hits the fan. To take the blame of the oil spill, to claim invention of the Internet, to be cheered for winning a war, to be forced to smile when he knows what type of anguish it is to make a “decision” he is overly informed will lead to losses of thousands of our own countrymen- young ones too, since its a tactical effort and our Droids are “far too expensive to waste- the risk of loosing the objective too great” that these sorts of compromised and calculated fatalities are part of the “cost of war”- the “cost of doing business”- the realistic business approach to the lack of emotion needed to encompass such a decision……
SO- you read so far, see my tangent and think… “WTH”? Where is she going here? Well- Im trying to say that he may sign the papers and signs the checks at the end of the day, but he is just the face to the company. Its a team effort to make anything run efficiently. A team all needs to be on target, together, with common goals and working towards the same destination as a group, or change will never be made. Effectively, change could happen- but it would not be the upward motion needed.
Honestly, its change in the American People- our Nation as a whole that is needed for anything to get done. If the team isnt on track or playing in synch with one another, the game is lost. Or if the concert hall is full and the conductor comes to the podium ready to keep the orchestra tempo and encourage the musicians- but the winds and strings are not even with the same sheet music….. I can tell you, I would walk out upset as a tax-paying citizen… demanding my ticket refunded… though no guarantee was ever made the music would be good. I assumed, and now will insist on having my reimbursement though the cost associated with the evening did not change due to anything the orchestra did.
Honestly, it takes too much work for change. Thats why there will be no change. We are afraid of work to make the change- either out of being Lazy altogether- fear of the mistakes that will be uncovered (and the blame, suits, arrogance of those to call out the blame to ensure the witch-hunt of the masses can get retribution…), the inability of our peoples as a whole to work towards common goal and not personal entitlement, then we would be able to really have our Presidential Elections be the public showcase they turn out to be- this time the popularity contest is at least not disguised as anything other.
I cannot believe some of what I am hearing today. A stimulus plan with 9000 earmarks. A health care plan funded at one trillion and is actually 3.5 trillion short. The payment on the National Debt is almost equal to every household’s income, The president gives the medal of Liberty to Poland and refers to their death camps by mistake which were Nazi. Did he really go to Harvard? He has had more vacation time than some people take in a lifetime. He shut down the manned space program for $110,000 in campaign donations claiming that private industry can do it better. NASA is made up primarily of private industry. How much of today’s technology came out of the space program? Can anyone really be serious about thinking this is a person worth voting for. I love the GM Bailout. All those new Chinese workers building GM cars and a secure retirement for the Union workers. Wonder how much GM spends on campaigns and lobbyists. And as Pelosi said let’s wait and see what is in the health bill. It is so good Obama made sure he was exempt along with his congress. Don’t worry you are going to love communist style health care. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find someone with half a brain that actullaly cared for this country as much as their own political ambitions. Eventually the debt bill has t be paid off. We need to stop screwing future generations of Americans. Vote him out.
1) The Republicans got us into this mess, lock, stock and barrel. Only US Republicans, it seems, are so naive as to think that the US can fight wars on three fronts while consistently lowering tax revenue and simultaneously shifting the tax burden to the poor and working class.
2) The tax burden needs to be paid in full, by all Americans. Those with larger disposable incomes can well afford to pay more in taxes, and should. Currently the reverse is true: those who can best afford to pay more, pay less than those who can’t afford the burden. Taxes are the dues one pays to live in civil society. Pay up.
3) The “War on Terror” is being fought on many fronts, but the big ones are Iraq, Afghanistan and here in the US. The brand new Department of Homeland Security sure has a big budget, the military spends a bazillion dollars daily, but we continue to argue over repealing the Bush era cuts. Take off the blinders and either raise government revenue to cover those costs or eliminate those costs.
4) President Obama, primarily, but with help from around the world, prevented a 2nd Great Depression. For that alone he gets my vote. The bailouts and spending programs haven’t helped enough because they are far too small to help more than they have. The wars haven’t helped because we’ve outsourced too much of our procurement and our labor to other countries.
5) Solutions: Raise taxes, especially on the wealthy, spend the money on US infrastructure (i.e. construction jobs, education jobs, healthcare jobs, police and fire department jobs, engineering jobs, science jobs, etc.) and watch the tax revenues, small businesses, and the overall economy go UP because people at street level have money to spend on things other than food, transportation costs of food, and their own meager necessities.
Guys,
I have to give Loyd some credit for pointing out something almost all Americans forget. Our President is only our national cheerleader and face of our country to the world and we haven’t had a good one in a long time. The Presidents job is to exicute the laws created by our very inept congress. You change America by changing Congress. The Presidents rants mean nothing without Congress taking the steps to make it so.
I like to see debates like this. It’s a great privalige that we as Americans have. Unfortunatly many Americans do not know how our government works, nor do they care. We vote for people based on their color, sex and looks. Rarely on their experience or ability to get things done. The last election was a prime example. Young man versre old, black verses white, the old establishment verses the guy with less than 6 months in government. Well, smart people who would make great Presidents are just that. Their too smart to run.
Boy, talk about STUPID! You voted for the Obamanation because you wanted to see a black president in your lifetime??? Seriously? Seriously stupid. Not to mention you have more of a problem with Sara Palin than Joe Biden? Again – seriously?
Obama gonna’ buy me gas, pay my mortgage, buy me food. Damn………he say anything to get elected.
Folks…………never forget what Valerie Jarrett said at Obama’s inauguration – “We came to Rule, not to lead”. Put this guy in office for another 4 years without a tether, and I am confident between golf, vacations, and hoops, he will work the angles to try to become President for life……………..and, he’s not even a US Citizen, so he shouldn’t be in the office in the first place. !!
NO, we as a nation and people are not better off than we were 3.5 years ago. And, if this goon gets re-elected, we are doomed…….feel the dizzying, downward spiral. Oh no……..I just made the Kill List.
Lloyd – Please talk with Alice Stine. Her convoluted thinking is giving me a migraine.
To Gail> I guess the other choice of a woman as being “Cheif in Command” was not the factor? You want someone to roll up the sleeves and get to WORK and get this country lined up, then ELECT a woman for a good 10-year term!
Lloyd, excuse my French (it’s because parents immigrated lawfully), but your an idiot. This s.o.b. bozo (sorry to the real Bozo the Clown) has never had a real job. As to Romney at least he uses his MONEY in a business trying to save it, It’s better than this S.O.B using tax dollars to help his “friends”.
On the auto bail out tell my salesman how great a deal this was, because he was a GM bondholder and lost about 300,000.00 dollars. I guess you being from Chicago you are sharper than the rest of us small business owners trying to get bank loans, pay taxes, and actually paying for health care.
And last, thank God, Obama is a friend to Israel, just imagine if he wasn’t!
p.s. Alice and Frank are more miss guided the you lloyd!
Almost everything Obama has done is to pay back the unions for helping him get elected. The stimulus was mostly paid to the states & had little to do with creating jobs. While manufacturers were cutting salaries on average by 10% & dropping matches to 401K plans to survive, Ohio took their share of the money and gave goverment employees a 3% raise while they still had a Democratic govenor. This is where the created or ‘saved’ jobs phase initiated from. Saved was for all the goverment employees we can’t afford now let alone their bloated pensions that are coming. The auto bailout may have been a success, but giving ownership to the unions over bondholders is unprecendented & another example of favoring the unions.
The Democrats easy home ownership programs were the start of the economic collapse!
Most of the out of control spending began under Nancy P. Bush’s spending related to Homeland Security & wars after 911. It wasn’t simply handouts to Republican causes the way the Democrats are wasting our money! We are going the way of Greece & it needs to stop soon. How about that great jobs number for May.
$5,200,000,000,000 More Debt
Lost our AAA debt rating
42,000,000 on food stamps
Gas $3.59 today $1.89 in 2008
Unemployment 8.2% Normal is 5%
6,000,000,000 Out of the work force
Increased employment only by the government
Solyndra
Alll of the broken promises!
What the world doesn’t love us. He told you they would.
Llyod voting for him because he was a black man was stupid.
Mccain was a RHINO and without Palin he would have received 20% of the vote.
Hasn’t Obama done well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your on the fence! He’s done nothing for any small business only his croonies in Big Business. See Solyndra & GE.
“It’s Bush’s fault” I forgot.
I forgot this recent one.
POLISH DEATH CAMPS
Only an idiot that has go grasp of history could make that mistake. I really doubt it was a mistake, I think he was landering the wonderful Polish People. They are great I have been there to meet them.
Lloyd,
You can’t be serious. This Mormon vs Moron.
Lloyd, I had no idea your are so out of touch with the national reality, especially with your business related to manufacturing. As for me, I am wasting no more time with this newsletter, advertising, or whatever this website is trying to be.
Lloyd you must have said this to get reaction I know you are wise man and would not vote for him again.
Lloyd, hate to say it that I’m worst off today, along with just about everyone I know.
Gas is higher, along with taxes, unemployment, and the economy is in a flunk, that I have never seen before.
Obama Bin Lying (OBL), been without a doubt the worst president in my 56 years of life, worst then Carter. Cinton was a rock star compare to OBL.
The only positive been that companies are waking up and are bring back work from oversea! With no help from the Feds, thank God!
After, OBL is defeated in November, I hate to say that the next non-white president will not be elected for many years. I am a Latino, and was hoping to see a Black or Latino in the White House, but I saw thru all the BS, that he was not going to be a good leader. The man been what I was expecting just a talker that been over his head with this non-community organizer position since his first day on the job.
It time to vote with our heads and not with our hearts.
The only solution that can get politicians to finally listen to the voter is for the voters to only vote for the non incumbant. Most of us truly dislike what both parties have done lately so get rid of them all so all the frezhmen will work out the issues and put their party affiliations aside anx get their eyes reset back onto the american people. The bottom line is new congrezsional members get castrated by their senior leaders upon arrival to washington so remove the entire group and you remove the castration and then watch how many solutions we voters receive. This should be the #1 focus for mainstream voters
Of –COURSE– the country is far better off than we were four years ago. The economy nearly vaporized and we are on a tough but forward path. No other major country has ever taken a blow like that and been stabilized like we have. Everything you said below is correct. And as an automotive engineer who still has his job because of what President Obama did for our entire industry and manufacturing base I’m greatful to have a guy with his brains and guts as President. And now Romney wants to get rid of financial reform? Is he nuts?
“If we ask the simple question, “Are we better off now than we were four years
ago?” I can absolutely say, yes. Economically, the country is far better off.
The controversial U.S. automaker bailouts must be considered a big success. GM and Chrysler are doing well. You can be an ideologue and complain, but in reality the attempt to save the auto industry worked better than anyone expected.
“
John Stratton, you sir are a liar and fool. Did you ever hear of 9-11? That attack devistated the American economy and destroyed hunderds of Wall Street companies which in turn almost destroyed the American economy which we recovered from in large part due to President Bush his administration and their policies.
You are a typical Liberal so steeped in Socialist/Marxist dogma that you cannot see anything outside of Mao-Bama and his march towards a Marxist state.
Mr. Graff,
Well its June 2nd, the day after your newsletter, and I’m pleased that I don’t stand alone in my opinion to your question. No, I don’t think we are better off.
While I will not be canceling my subscription, your blog has been entertaining and enlightening from time to time, I agree with some of your detratctors that your stated resons for voting for our President seem foolish, if not racist.
I hope sir, that you take the time to examine in detail those things that are important to you and your family, those seeming intangibles such as freedom, truth, justice, and honor to name a few, examine if they are important to you, and if so, how our current administartion has upheld them.
No one knows how to run my life better than me, furthermore I have certain expectations as to the role of goverment, both what it is, and what it is not, as well as how it should represent me. I am less than thrilled with the current Administration track record in this regard. I would ask you if you are happy?
I am looking forward to read your response to your readers comments.
Romney age 40 – Self-made millionaire
Obama age 40 – Still paying student loans
This country can’t run the Postal Service and it’s going to manage “Obamacare”?
As a business owner our largest monthly bill is for the 100% paid family coverage
for our employees. If you think health care is expensive now now, wait until it’s free.
I believe Obama, Reid, Palosi, Holder and Joe are the best thing that has ever
happened to this country. Let’s get their dumb asses out. That also goes for any
other politician (Republican or Democrat) that has sat in Washington for the last
twenty years driving us full throttle into this debt crisis wall.
In ten years our interest only payment to China will fully subsidize their military.
I have rather offhandedly accepted the fact that Obama is an American citizen. All the while being aware of the undercurrent to the contrary; especially from “The Donald”. But after reading Jerry Johnson’s insertion above, it sure seems the Sherriff has done one hell-of-a-job in digging into this controversy. And, if true, we’ve sure got one hell-of-a-mess on our hands.
Can anyone imagine what our heaven dwelling founding fathers are observing, as they look down, with disgust, on what their scrupulous efforts to create the best system that men ever created, with a system of concern for the differences of its citizens. i.e.- The Declaration and The Constitution including The Bill of Rights, has become.
God help us! We humans seem unable to help ourselves, or learn from history.
The programs being instituted, and the direction we’re heading, are doomed to ultimate failure as they have throughout the story of mankind.
I was born in 1932. And FDR was elected president. He was thought to have “saved the country” with the implementation of the government WPA, CCC, and other programs.
He was a god to many/most of the American people. I grew up in a house that truly believed that. What also was instituted with those programs, i.e. Social Security, were the seeds of socialism, which have grown and prospered over both Democrat and Republican administrations, until we have today, along with the rest of the world, this time, the rapid approach to the abyss. It ain’t going to be pretty!
Again! God help us! Lordy, I sure admire the Jews. They don’t take shit from anybody.
Ever notice how mean-spirited the right wing zealots are?
If you don’t agree with them, you’re an idiot, a moron, a socialist, anti-American . . . blah, blah, blah.
How come the right wingers don’t admit Bush and Cheney’s tax cuts and unwarranted wars bankrupted the country?
If your car’s in a ditch, you have to spend money to get it towed. Bush and Cheney put the country in a ditch and Obama spent some money (stimulus, for the uneducated) to get it back on the road to prosperity.
Meanwhile, the tea partiers and other right wing zealots stand around plotting how they can get a black man out of the oval office.
If our elected officials worked together to solve problems, we’d be a lot better off. Unfortuantely, that’s not going to happen when we have intransigent bigots in office.
To all of the people that want to get removed from the mailing list . . . you guys are funny. That’s so 2 year old-ish. Wah Wah wah Mr. Graff hurt my feelings, I’m going to pick up my ball and go home.
How you guys going to educate the dumb-ass liberals such as myself if you all pick up your balls and go home? Doesn’t it just make you mad that there are people in the world that disagree with you?
Let’s see:
Stopped economy from falling off the cliff entirely – check.
Manufacturing job growth for first time in decades – check.
Al Qaeda leadership constantly decimated – check.
Bin Laden killed – check.
Major financial reform, and winddown authority and bank capital limits installed – check.
Iraq is in once peice and our soldiers and mega-billion $s are out – check.
Afghanistan being stabilized as best as it can be and handed back to them – check.
Health care reform that starts to manage costs we all already pay anyhow via ERs, hospital cost-shifting to paying patients, lost wages, pre-existing conditions causing lack of job mobility, etc. etc. – check.
Gadhaffi taken down, Lybian wholesale slaughter ended – check.
Crushing Iran sanctions, Stuxnet, etc. – check.
Auto industry restructuring and extremely rapid revival – check.
Manufacturing education programs and tie-ins with community colleges – check.
Exports strongly up – check.
Sounds good to me. Facts are facts, as opposed to Etch-A-Sketch flip-flops.
First, all 545 are to blame…
Who we need as President, is a good salesman…
How else are we going to eliminate partisan politics and get something done!
We are in a state of collapse as a country for lack of fiscal constraint…
Lloyd,
I cannot believe that you wrote it. I understand that a lot of us are proud to have a black president, and that is good just for 2 days after election.
What have we achieved? The country is in hopelessly grim mood, there is no future on the horizon, and millions of jobs are melting away.
While our socialist president is engaged in verbal assaults on businesses, hundreds of “occupiers” terrorize our cities; for them, he is lecturing about extracting more from “1 present”.
Thousands of union thugs are sending buses all over the country to intimidate those who is talking about unjust union benefits and pensions bankrupting out cities.
I work for education. Obama’s Department of Education created hundreds of disclosures, reports, procedures transforming proprietary education in the total bureaucratic madhouse; they are marking for-profit education for extinction.
Let us talk about manufacturing. You know that shops could not find quality employees.
In my school we graduate more CNC operators and setup than all community colleges in Chicago and suburbs combined, using a small portion of their budget. You would think that we might have some appreciation, right?
Wrong, we have nothing, but bureaucratic oppression driving everything to halt.
The day he is gone with his fake “hope and change”, we all get some light in our life.
The country is on the right track manufacturing is comming back. Osama Bin laden is dead and GM is alive. God only knows if the Bush/ Rommny economic polices continued. Rommny suported the bank bailout but not the auto, where would the manufacturing base be without the American auto industrie.Rommney talks tough on war but has no skin in the game. Rommney and his five sons have not spent one day in the military. He has off shore accounts to avoid tax while we are in two wars. He should talk a little more measured and thoughtfull on sending others to war which he does not want to pay for He plays lower tax rate then most middle and upper middle class people. Obama was delt a horrible hand but deserves a c+ -B so far. He supports manufacturing. The healthcare is a good first step the republicans have no answer but can help to improve.
How America voted for a guy who has never had a job minus a political position is beyond me. Ron Paul is probably our best option at this point. As someone else stated, though – it’s not like these political figures truely care about the rest of the masses. In the last 4 years, I can easily say it’s been the slowest for me career wise, as far as advancments go. I got my MS degree in Engineering in 2009, and I have yet received a pay raise. I was making great yearly increases till 2009 came around. Going back to school has not paid off for me. I guess I’m lucky to still have a job, but I can NOT say we are better off in 2012 than we were in 2008. My take home is less now than it was then – and now factor in inflation and I’m worse off…
I am far better off today than I was 4 years ago. In 2008, our economy was heading into the canyon. This of course is why gasoline was so cheap then. How quickly some forget that gas was high in the 2 years leading up to the economic collapse. We are starting to see economic growth but with the entire world economy generally down, it will take time. Growth will be slow for awhile but hopefully we will build a more sustainable economy in the future and one that benefits more and not just a few.
I am better off as well than I was in 2008. Ditto my IRA. The Obama Administration inherited a legacy of bad debt and mis-spending. While his decisions haven’t been perfect, there has been forward momentum and progressive movement. I do plan on voting for him – again – this November largely because of my view on social issues, which President Obama supports and Governor Romney does not. He, Romney, also tries in vain to be a ‘man of the people’ and fails epically. This doesn’t mean he isn’t smart or can’t be a good leader, but it indicates a vague distance from reality, which is unsettling. I also agree with you, Lloyd, that he lacks commitment to any particular principle.
Will it be the end of the world if Romney wins? No; I have no plans to move to Toronto any time soon. But I think it would have us looking back from 2016 wondering how things would be if the election had gone differently. After all, a lot of us are still doing that about the 2000 election (speaking of Al Gore…)
I won’t vote for Romney or Obama. Neither one I feel is qualified to lead this country.
Seems to be some differences in opinion. In Wisconsin, a heavy DEMOCRATIC STATE with long ties to UNION MEMBERSHIP have SPOKEN! The silent majority, those who live in the state, unless you are a democratic legislator and leave the state for 3 weeks to bail out on a vote, soundly said no to the progressive left way of doing things! We need leaders willing to act properly with the people’s money. They kept a conservative fiscal leader with proven skills to lead there state, the second time he was voted in, he had MORE VOTES than when first elected! Well now, let’s see what happens in NOVEMBER! Yo YO, OBAMA’s GOTTA GO! All aboard, choo CHOO!