The Final Countdown... Why You Should Vote for Mitt Romney for President.

Well, here we are.

Four years after Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States of America, and Americans go to the polls again to decide if Obama has earned another term as President.   In 2008, Barack Obama swept into the White House easily handling John McCain on the waves of “hope” and “change”…. a bright and energetic young politician who spoke of great things, inspiring things, on changing the tone in Washington, line by line vetoes, balancing our budgets and reducing our debt… the platform of the 2008 Obama campaign on the surface sounded like something Democrats, Republicans, and Independents could all rally around.

For some of us, there were enough red flags from the President’s 2008 campaign to warrant some concern of the impending Obama regime.  But at the end of the day – Obama’s flowery language and promises of a better tomorrow almost seemed too good to be true.

For Barack Obama, the last four years have been an exercise in patience.  What was promised to be an Administration of transparency and bipartisanship quickly turned divisive and derisive, to coin a phrase.  The President quickly began to remind those on the right that at the end of the day, “Elections have consequences.”

Now, here we are, four years later facing a similar situation than we did in 2008.  Out of control debt, questionable foreign policy, a nation bitter, despondent, and divided.  The Progressive Left has been driven further to the Left, and the Conservative right gave birth to the Tea Party. We are fractioned off by race, creed, sexual orientation, nationality, and worst off – socio-economically.  The American Dream has taken a dramatic turn in the last four years from independence and self reliance to more centralized Federal Government role.

What is the American dream?

Is the American dream a record $16 trillion dollars in debt?  Those in 2008 who worried about the enormous amount of debt the Bush Administration had compiled now stand idly by as the Obama Administration dwarfs the Bush debt in four years?  Is this what you voted for when you voted for Barack Obama?  A stimulus package, some $800 billion dollars in Keynesian spending that was promised to have unemployment at 5.6% at this time in our history … and yet we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 million jobs off?  A stimulus spending package so wrought with wasted municipality budget gap shortfalls that had really no chance of creating jobs (wasn’t it Obama himself who said – jokingly, mind you, that “shovel ready jobs weren’t exactly … shovel ready as we thought?)  President Obama gambled to the tune of $800 billion dollars … and by most accounts, failed on that gamble.

But the President’s domestic policy didn’t stop there – reckless green energy investments, more infamously notable – Solyndra, resulting in billions of squandered tax payer dollars.  Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars gone as investment after investment went bankrupt.  Sure, the auto bailout was popular and the President touts this as a major Administrative success, but was it really?  GM is losing billions of dollars with the Chevy Volt, many insiders speculate GM may be on its way to needing another bailout, or managed bankruptcy anyway.  And what about Cash for Clunkers?  Remember that boondoggle that ended up costing the taxpayer in the end?

There’s President Obama’s pathetic domestic energy policy – one that has left Americans as beholden to foreign oil as ever before.  While the President sends billions of taxpayer dollars to countries like Brazil and Mexico to explore for oil so that we can buy it from them, the Administration’s attack our ability to extract our own oil from federal lands is certainly worth noting.  In fact, the only reason the President can tout some domestic oil extrusion increase is because of private companies and their good work.

This President, who punted on a no-brainer like the Keystone XL Pipeline, a job creating, energy producing project that had the blessing of both big Labor and big Business – and that project doesn’t happen day one?  How is that possible?

Talk to the coal industry about how this Administration’s stringent regulatory policy has left them with very little hope for the future… but then again, we knew this was coming when Obama said that opening a coal plant would ultimately lead to bankruptcy.

And how could we forget the “Affordable Care Act” … a bill so large, convoluted, and unpopular that it had to be passed in the dead of night with the help of kickbacks and promises and Executive Orders that carried very little weight – a bill that promised to lower premiums and make healthcare more readily accessible and affordable.  So far, Obamacare has failed at every objective (unless of course you consider keeping your near middle aged children on your healthcare insurance a success).  Many businesses agree, the economy has been grinding to a halt as a result of the impending unintended consequences and massive taxation coming as a result of Obamacare.

How about Dodd/Frank – a banking regulatory bill passed that no one understands, and has so many loopholes in it, fails at its core objective?

Ask yourself – domestically – are you… are your friends and family… is this nation better off than it was four years ago?

On the foreign front, President Obama will tout his worldwide appeal as a success, but is it really?  Sure, he ended the War in Iraq (following a SOFA agreement worked out by President Bush), and doubled down in Afghanistan (twice as many soldiers have died under Obama’s tenure in Afghanistan than Bush), but are we any safer?  Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but the claims that Al Qaeda has been decimated and are on the run seem to be overtly exaggerated.  Just look at Benghazi 9/11/12.  A complete and udder abject failure of foreign policy cost the lives of four Americans, including our Ambassador to the region Chris Stevens – and what’s worst is the apparent blundered cover-up perpetrated by the State Department and the Obama Administration.

But don’t stop at Benghazi – Iran is ever closer to building a nuclear weapon and our closest ally in the region, Israel, is faced daily with the threats of its extermination thanks to a radical threat.  The foreign policy of appeasement has seemed to fail the American people and our interests abroad.  Do we want an America that kowtows to Russia, China, and Iran in the name of “peace” … but projects weakness?  How much in strength and resolve of American righteous justice has been wasted away when the Commander in Chief travels from nation to nation – not lifting up the strength and character and resolve of America and all the right and good we do for the world – instead telling nations how the United States has let the world down?  Is that the kind of leadership that will keep us safe in the new world?

We had a once in a lifetime chance in Iran with the Green movement – and we failed – holding out for diplomacy with a madman without conditions.  Is that the type of judgment we need moving into a more dangerous and volatile world?

But the largest deficit this country has dealt with isn’t on foreign soil, and believe it or not, isn’t in our wallets.  It’s a deficit of leadership.  Barack Obama has successfully managed to fork a wedge between Americans the likes of which we have not seen or felt in a generation.  The man who once said you’ve failed if you “make a big election about small things” has attempted to pit rich against poor, whites vs. minorities, the church against the state, gay against straight, man against woman.  Now, many of these divisive issues we’ve had as Americans for generations, but you expect a leader to try and bridge those gaps – not exploit them for political gain.  And yet for the Obama Administration, the election has boiled down to voting with “lady parts”, the “47%”, “Big Bird”, and “Binders”.  Is this what you were promised when you elected Barack Obama in 2008?

To be sure, the Obama Administration has had some tough issues to deal with.  And I honestly believe in my heart of hearts that Barack Obama means no ill will towards this nation, or what it stands for, or who we are.  I believe he believes his policies and ideology represent a positive change for the nation.  Unfortunately, the facts do not bear that out.  The Obama Administration has been wrought with scandal, blunders, inexplicable decisions, budgets that Democrats don’t even take seriously, partisanship, and small ball politics.

What makes Barack Obama’s four year tenure as President isn’t so much his policies or his ideology … it’s that he’s everything he promised he would run against.  Barack Obama 2012 is the politician Barack Obama 2008 warned us about.  And for that alone – he does not deserve a second term as President.

Mitt Romney isn’t perfect.  Mitt Romney wasn’t the Conservative’s first choice.  Mitt Romney has made some mistakes on the campaign trail.  But Mitt Romney has been a leader in every stage of his life – be it in his faith, in the private sector, and as an elected official.  A man with keen business savvy and the embodiment of the American spirit that says you, too, can make it … with hard work and perseverance.  That there is no shame in success.  And with that success bears the responsibility of tending to one’s neighbor, their community, their faith, their fellow man.  Mitt Romney has given of himself in ways many of us will never understand.   Often thankless and without public praise.  A man who embodies the spirit of bipartisanship being a Republican Governor in a true blue state like Massachusetts.  A man whose personal and professional background led him to be a fantastic job creator in Massachusetts (yes, 47th in job creation … but it’s hard to create jobs when your state’s unemployment level is just above 4% – meaning everyone is working).

Mitt Romney has a bold economic plan to restore the fiscal sanity of America.  One that Democrats, Independents, and Republicans can rally around if they can look past the partisanship that has plagued our discourse.  Getting America energy independent with an all-above approach to extraction, refining, and producing domestic energy.  Championing the small business and entrepreneur through aggressive tax reformation and easing unnecessary and overreaching regulation.  Making the American market appealing to do business in and with again.

Mitt Romney has the knowledge and experience America needs to get out of this anemic growth and malaise we are mired in.

On the foreign policy front, Mitt Romney will work to re-establish America’s position as a global powerhouse in the world – the “peace through strength” mantra that made our enemies fear our resolve, not test it.  Remind our allies that we stand with them no matter what, not just in word but in deed.  This is what America so desperately needs… so richly deserves.

In 2012, the differences can’t be more stark.  The contrasts more clear.  America stands at a crossroad – and the choice of who we are and who we will become will be answered in days.  What do we want out of a leader?  Who will we be moving forward and what nation will we leave our future generations?

President Obama was right when he said this election was “still about hope” and “still about change.”  The hope, for America is a restoration from fiscal irresponsibility to solvency, from an out of control debt to a path to a balanced budget, market stability and entitlement reform from the cloud of uncertainty that hovers over our nation.  A change… in direction from apathy and dependency to individualism and a sense of community.  A change from all this divisiveness that has pit American against American to a sense of healing.  We may never agree on everything, but at least we can change from the politics of derisiveness to a chance to finally listen to one another… and grow together as a nation.

For me, the choice cannot be any simpler.  And I hope you will join me in electing Mitt Romney as the 45th President of the United States of America.

- TMS