Why I am Rooting for, if not supporting Obama in 2012

This is in response to a facebook posting asking why I don’t post criticisms of Obama during this election season, so if you’re running across this, I’m just generally commenting on the candidates and answering two specific questions/statements:

1. Out of the two Mitt Romney would do a better job for our country financially.

1. NO Mitt Romney would NOT do better for the country financially, there is ABSOLUTELY no evidence of that.  NONE.  In fact there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary if you look at his term as Governor in Mass.

In fact, if you get away from Neo-Con news you’ll find that Obama has actually done VERY WELL for this country financially.

Here are a FEW facts:

• Obama is perhaps the first president to deal with a congress whose SOLE PURPOSE was to block his every move.  They said so, you can find quotes from Republican Congressmen saying so.  This Congress even blocked legislation that THEY AT ONE TIME SUPPORTED.  And in general, they had NOTHING to offer back unless it involved tax cuts for the Top 1%.  Which, let’s be honest, Trickle Down economics has had 30 years to have some positive effect, it has not.
• Let’s be CLEAR about this as well, in case there are memory issues.  This financial crisis started under a REPUBLICAN administration that had aggressively followed a plan of deregulation.  It is interesting to note that the very things they had deregulated, The mortgage industry, banking, Wall Street are the very things that collapsed.
• The debt has grown $5 TRILLION under Obama, it grew nearly that much ($4.6 TRILLION) under Bush.  The difference?  While Bush was in office the Republican party went on a spending spree of EPIC proportions, basically taking a high-interest credit card out at the Bank of China.  Obama walked into office to have to deal with a nearly $13 TRILLION defecit.  Know what killing the Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich would save us?  $1.8 TRILLION a year.  But the Pubs can’t let that go.  Their rich friends need more money to give to them so they can be re-elected.  Add to that the fact that everything EVERYTHING that Obama and the Dems have recommended to try to resolve the issue has been blocked by the TRAITORS in the House.
• BUT, let’s look at PERCENTAGES as they tell a more accurate story than do these big ole numbers.   Obama inherited the largest budget deficit in peacetime history at 10% of GDP.  It is now 6% of GDP.  In spite of the obstructionist traitors in Congress, Obama and the Dems have reduced the budget deficit by 4% in four years.  IMAGINE what they could have done without the obstructionists.  The last president to get the budget deficit on the positive side of the column?  A DEMOCRAT by the name of Bill Clinton.  The last Republican President with a balanced budget???  Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• Republicans like to talk about the bailout as bad, BUT, only the ignorant would buy into that, the TARP program along, the bailout for AIG, EARNED, yes EARNED the Government $17.7 BILLION in profits.
• We’re making our money back from GM, GMAC and Chrysler, in fact they just announced a sell-off of some of the stock from GM…dunno the details….  AND TARP saved 1,000,000 jobs in the auto industry.  Romney’s stance on that?  Well we don’t’ know… he flip flopped so much that we’re not sure if he supported tarp (out one side of his mouth) or if he wanted the car companies to go bankrupt (out the other side of his mouth).  GM saw its most profitable year last year and Chrysler was stable enough to start bringing a new (old) line to the States, FIAT.
• The deregulation of the housing market by Republicans was probably the biggest knife in the back.  The bubble it created has yet to stabilize, though there is some light at the end of that tunnel, home prices are up, sales are up, but not what they used to be.  I don’t expect they ever will be as long as banks are being tight-fisted with credit.  I do think that if a bank/mortgage lender took TARP money then they should be REQUIRED to loan it out to people with a certain level of “credit worthiness” (whatever that means).  But people with high credit scores are getting turned down for loans.  The banks are hoarding the TARP money, in essence, hoarding OUR MONEY.  And it is one of my biggest complaints about ALL OUR so-called leaders that they didn’t make it part of the requirements for getting TARP that these companies be required to actually do their jobs and not hide the money in a mattress.
• Another complaint with President Obama and his Justice Dept. is that NOT A ONE of the people responsible for this mess has been brought to trial or, as far as I can tell, even investigated.  America was subjected to the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history, one that would have made Maddoff proud, and everyone is getting away with it.
• The Health Care Law – I personally think it’s half-assed and we should have adopted a GERMAN STYLE single payer system.  The Germans got it right and have had it right for over 100 years.  Is it perfect?  No.  But if you’re waiting for perfection, you’ll be waiting a very long time.  People do slip through the cracks and if you want to cherry pick stories of those people you certainly can do so.   BUT, 80% of all Germans are HAPPY with their health care system.  BTW.. I haven’t found a decent poll yet to give me an actual number for the U.S., there are some that say 50% some as high as 89%…but the higher numbers were taken with people who actually HAD health insurance and/or were coupled with obvious Right Wing rhetoric… I don’t that’s legit.
• In fact, the Healthcare law, as anemic as it is has already saved the states money by preventing abuse of the emergency room system AND cut waste fraud and abuse by up to $70Bn.
• His transfer of $700bn from Medicare to the Healthcare law has actually extended the Medicare program (by some estimates 70 years, but some until 2070, depends on who you read).

2. Yea, well they’re both pussies for not volunteering to go to the middle east too right?

2.  They were both too old to serve in the M.E. and Obama was too young to serve in Vietnam.  And no, I have NO PROBLEM with Bill Clinton getting a deferment to pursue his education.  BUT, Let’s be clear, it isn’t the deferment (actually FOUR deferments) that’s the issue.  It’s the behavior AFTER receiving the deferment that’s the issue.  It’s the protesting FOR the Vietnam war that’s the issue.  He’s a fucking chicken-hawk who’s happy to let other (poorer) people die for him.  He’s happy to get out and call for war, but he doesn’t want to dirty his hands being actually in one.  He’s a coward.  Clinton got a deferment and then had the courage to stand up for his convictions and organize protests against the Vietnam War.  No hypocrisy there.

BTW… I don’t really agree that the president should have to be a veteran.  There are plenty of presidents who were veterans that sucked (Garfield, Jimmy Carter) and plenty of non-veterans who where great (Jefferson, FDR –though he was Asst SecNav).

I can go on.

• Obama KILLED Osama Bin Laden.  No, HE didn’t pull the trigger personally.  But without his orders the SEALS would have never gone into Pakistan, violating a nation’s air space, and executed a raid that resulted in the demise of our most wanted fugitive.  The argument that a Navy SEAL killed bin Laden is specious.  Historically, Presidents and Generals get the glory and that is just the way it is.  OBAMA succeeded where Bush failed.
• He has the BALLS to send drones after terrorists across borders despite it technically being illegal.
• He doesn’t make a damned fool of himself every time he opens his mouth. Unlike our previous CinC and the current Republican boob.
• Employment numbers suck, but they are getting slowly better (Houston’s about 7%).  THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE under a Romney administration that would have let GM, GMAC and Chrysler go bankrupt.  10% worse by some counts.  Complaints that the recovery isn’t happening fast enough (usually by neo-cons) simply ignore the fact that the Republicans LEFT THE COUNTRY IN A GIANT FUCKING MESS.  It’s like those people who go into a shop, spill something, and then sue because the proprietor didn’t clean it up fast enough when the (faked) slipping on it.
• The Republicans as far as I’m concerned have abdicated ANY leadership role they should have by declaring that their primary job was to ensure Obama was a one term president.  THAT IS NOT WHAT THE LEGISLATURE IS FOR!!  They aren’t working for US they’re working for their party and that’s it.  If you want a government that works for the Party, then I suggest you move to N. Korea or Cuba.
• Their only other agenda has been to ensure that their rich friends keep their tax cut under the theory that they were the “job creators.”  Well APPARENTLY the “job creators” didn’t get the notice!!!
• This in spite of the fact that Wall Street is at its highest levels since 2008.
• Let’s see, for the first time the U.S. is a NET EXPORTER of Gasoline.
• We’ve reduced our dependency on Middle East Oil and Domestic Production is at an all time high (I’ve seen figures indicating that we’re at 70% capacity for production on Nat. Gas and Oil right now!)
• Remember that pig Keystone?  In spite of it being a waste of time and resources for the Pubs to defend with lie after lie after lie, it’s being built.  They started laying pipe in E. Texas two months ago.  And thank god for it too, after all the Republican’s Chinese Masters need Diesel.
• BTW…little known fact, if we wanted to get more oil from Canada there is about 1million barrels per day surplus pipeline capacity that is NOT in use TODAY.  And that’s NOW, not in 2020 when Keystone is slated to come online.  KEYSTONE will have NO EFFECT on our oil production what so ever as it’s an EXPORT pipeline.  The U.S won’t even collect tariffs on it.  In fact, some people think that Keystone may actually INCREASE the cost of gasoline in the United States as it relieves the glut of shale oil.  So in spite of all the Pub gnashing of teeth, it’s not REALLY about getting us cheaper fuel.
• We’re finally out of Iraq.  If Bush (or McCain) were in I bet we wouldn’t be.
• We’re drawing down Afghanistan.  And it’s about frakking time too.   The war we SHOULD have focused on is finally drawing to a close.
• In spite of Mitt Romney’s lies to the contrary, Obama’s administration has brought MORE suits against the Chinese for their trade practices than the previous administration did in eight years.  Eight suits so far, one a year.  That’s four times as many as Bush brought his entire term.
• Obama has been the MOST GUN FRIENDLY president since JFK.  Both Reagan and Bush did more to damage our 2nd Amendment rights than Obama has even thought about.  And while Obama is a KNOWN gun control advocate and supporter of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban he did NOTHING to extend it.  On the OTHER HAND, Gov. Mitt Romney signed a permanent state ban on assault weapons in Mass.   Of course, “assault weapons” being really “assault style” weapons like my Ar-15 and Beowulf and not actually really, select fire assault weapons (class III).  And yet, the NRA is supporting Romney??? Really??? Where’s the logic in that????

My biggest complaint about Obama thus far?  He hasn’t been bold enough in taking these traitors and liars to task for their actions.  Other than that, the complaints I’ve seen thus far have been either specious at best, so tainted as to not be able to be taken seriously, founded in conspiracy theory, or just outright lies.

That’s not to say that he hasn’t failed at many points.  Earmarks, the whole changing Washington Culture thing, the ineptitude of many of his people to simply explain the Healthcare bill, the early ignorance of his cultural advisors.  But I never expected him to do the first two, those were foolish promises to make.  As to the rest, it’s minor b.s.

The way I see it, after much research these past few months, the Republican Party has ceased to exist and what has been left in their place is a bunch of obstructionist traitors intent only on maintaining their own power and enriching themselves and their friends.  If that means running roughshod over us “headcount” and the Constitution, so be it.

I wish like hell that Gary Johnson had a chance, just a chance.  And since I’m here in Texas I’ll still get to vote for him as we know that Romney will win here.  But since I know that Johnson doesn’t have a chance, I have to choose which side to support and after much research I have chosen the Democrats in this fight.  The behavior of the Republicans has been reprehensible and ANTI-AMERICAN.

And after all what’s Romney done?  Sent jobs overseas and made a lot of fucking money for himself.  We already know he’s on China’s side, after all, that’s where most of his profits come from.  We also know he’s the biggest flip-flopper on the face of the planet.  And it’s not Dems accusing him of being so, it’s neo-cons…  including Gingrich, Perry, and a whole host of others.  So maybe, a vote for Romney means you get whatever president you want at the time, but watch out, he changes with the weather.  (Gingrich called him a liar, and I can’t believe that I actually have something to agree with Newt on!)

So I have to stop now.  I have a LOT of reading to do for my Masters in History program.  Maybe I’ll take time after I’m done with that to list the reason why Romney is a DOUCHE.  Maybe not.  We’ll see.