Today’s Election Day 2012, and you’ve heard the cliched statement that “You have a clear choice.” Well, folks, it’s true: you really do. The choice for this video-blogger is simple: Barack Obama should be reelected as President of The United States.
And it’s for a set of reasons that go far beyond the campaign’s “feel good” nature. Something best expressed at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
The reasons are simple ones: President Obama understands and appreciates the role of Government in America, and is not contemptuous of it. Gov. Mitt Romney, by contrast, not only consistently expresses his dislike for the Federal Government – knee-jerk pumping what he sees as the better private sector without giving the matter serious intellectual consideration – but seems poised to make sure it does not function effectively. This dangerous point of view has been evident in Romney’s statements about both the auto bailout and FEMA – and he has been resoundingly wrong on both occasions.
In the case of the auto bailout, Mitt Romney actively campaigned against it, advocating for a scenario that would see “Detroit go bankrupt” as part of a “managed bankruptcy” effort. Lost in this draconian approach was the enormous employment bloodshed that would have been spilled just to achieve the objective of making a company that produced greater profit margins for hedge fund investors. Lost in that cold end game was the irreparable damage such an effort would have had on the very urban fabric that contained the auto industry. And lost in that squeeze play of an economic idea is the lost market share and low national self esteem that would have certainly followed. We’ve never seen a “managed bankruptcy” on such a large scale, so the impacts of this have never been known.
By contrast, we’ve bailed-out companies before, and industries too, and more often than not with great results. The emergence of GM and Chrysler are great additions to this tradition, and proves that Government works best in the role of market corrector – the role we as Americans really want it to play.
We certainly wanted Government to play the role of not just market corrector, but disaster recovery director after Hurricane Sandy last week. Indeed, Hurricane Sandy has turned out to be the “October surprise of the 2012 Election,” literally swooping in to shake us up and remind us why we have a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the Cabinet-level, and not demoted to some poorly-funded second-banana department within an agency. The Obama Administration made sure that America’s disaster preparedness was not the laughing stock it was after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Indeed, the FEMA response to Sandy was nothing short of heroic. And while there’s still much to be done, we’re seeing rapid progress every, single day – and we’re just a week removed from the time the hurricane hit.
The point is that under Barack Obama, Government does work, and our President’s not afraid to make it work. That’s something to be proud of, and want to maintain, that approach – it’s not something any reasonable-thinking person should want to jettison.
Barack Obama has restored competence and greatness to American Government. Let’s keep that going.
Vote for President Obama.