We’ve heard all the promises, excuses, smart lines, and grotesque misrepresentations. Now it’s time to choose.
And the choice is easy. On one hand is a leader who saved us from sure fiscal disaster, watched over a recuperating economy, preserved our national security and guided our nation’s international relations in rough waters, ensured landmark universal access to health care, and pushed historic social policy with respect to immigration and civil rights.
On the other is a supply-side Reaganomics disciple who says he is fit to lead because of his knowledge about the economy. A man who says he has a plan but when asked over and over for the specifics can’t produce. The arithmetic doesn’t work, the inequities of the plan are manifest, and gauzy platitudes can no longer cover this up. He is a former moderate governor who became a pawn of an increasingly radical Republican Party, not a leader of it.
On issue after issue, the choice couldn’t be more clear. Not only because President Obama is right on most of them, but because he leads on all of them. I frequently have made it clear that I think President Obama could have handled politics and policies differently. But he has been decisive, strong, and consistent—important qualities in a president. Mitt Romney is indeed an Etch A Sketch, the antithesis of leadership.
I laugh when I hear people argue that Romney would be a better leader than President Obama or that Romney would better connect with the American people, with the middle-class workers who deserve a fair wage, with the students who not only strive for a top-notch education but who hope for a fighting chance to pay off student loans, with women who believe they should have more say about their bodies and medical care than politicians.
Facts matter. Science matters. Reason matters. Mitt Romney has shown an inability to respect any of the three. President Barack Obama not only respects them, he relies on them. He is an overwhelming and unquestioned choice to continue as president.
