*David Swerdlick, a columnist for TheRoot is making the case that President Obama should stand up a run on his record against the eventual GOP presidential nominee which looks more and more like Mitt Romney.
After all Swerdlick argues, the economy’s improving, he’s winning wars and he’s using Romney’s health care plan … so why not take that case to America?
The Harvard Law guy who probably studied for the LSAT in his dad’s governor’s mansion is lecturing the guy who got there on a scholarship about the American dream. And President Barack Obama — the guy who took former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s health care plan nationwide — is being called a “failure” by … wait for it … Mitt Romney.
The GOP front-runner has his own problems, getting pilloried this week for telling CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, “I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there.” And the president has his problems, too. He’s personally popular, but his job-approval rating languishes at 48 percent.
But conventional wisdom says that Obama will lose the general election if he talks about his own record, and instead, that he should convert the election from a referendum on his first term into a choice between himself and Romney — an uptight “Richie Rich” who’s simply too out of touch to deal head-on with the serious situation the country finds itself in.
In short, Obama should tout his own accomplishments. If he accentuates the positive, Romney’s résumé will still pale in comparison. And if he loses to Romney in the fall, at least he’ll go down taking due credit for what he’s done.
Read/learn MORE at TheRoot.
David Swerdlick, you better be careful what you ask for.
As much as I would give Obama a passing grade on the economy, especially his turning around of the domestic auto market, his complete record could be a liability. For the most part, we see a man, who out of fear or deference to the Republicans, ended up with a record which no progressive could be proud of.
One of Obama’s first tasks was to stimulate the economy. He had the money and it seem simple enough. The tried and tested formula showed that unemployment insurance, food stamps and infrastructure were the most stimulative, in that order. Republican inspired tax cuts, on the other hand, were the least stimulative. But Obama couldn’t even carry out that simple task without conceding to Republican compromises, even though he knew that they were intended to sabotage the stimulus in their desire to see him fail.
“He’s winning the war.”
What war? Obama was the one who unnecessarily escalated the war in Afghanistan, reasoning that whatever the outcome, he was willing to kill to get re-elected. You want to talk about him “winning” the war because he killed Bin Laden? I give him credit for that. That’s how the war on terror should be fought. With stealth and intelligence. Not with the over 1200 troops he sent to their death in Afghanistan in less than four years. And not with the over $600 billion he drained from the American economy on these damn wars in his selfish desire to look tough to Republicans.
So the war in Iraq is finally ending, but no credit to Obama. That credit goes to Wikileaks. It’s only when the Iraqi s learned from Wikileaks about the family of 11 that were murdered and then their home demolished that Obama had to back down from his demand to continue with the occupation
On health care, don’t even go there. It’s now official, thanks to Richard Kirsh, that Obama did not give a damn about real health care reform, and it now seems his motivation for passing the bill had more to do with satisfying his own selfish ambitions.
“The White House had negotiated a number of deals with the health industry, designed to win their support for reform, including agreeing to oppose a robust public option, which would have the greatest clout to control how much providers got paid,” writes Kirsch, largely confirming what has become an open secret in Washington.
He didn’t do shit for homeowners whose homes were being stolen from them by banks who couldn’t even prove that they had the right to foreclose on the homes.
And let’s not forget the NDA act, that abominable legislation which he signed in collusion with the cursed Republicans, allowing for indefinite detention without charge.
So at the end of the day, we are screwed with the choice between Obama and Romney. If Ron Paul doesn’t get the nomination, I’m not really sure if it matters who wins the election. I can’t stand the idea of a Republican being in office, but then at least the Dems will stand up to him when he and his cronies in Congress propose another abominable legislation like the NDA act
Bottom line. Obama could be a much better president if he didn’t believe that kissing Republicans ass was a criterion for success.
Say what we will about his record however it beats the hell out of the alternatives hands down!
Democrat or republican, politics is politics and politics is only about protecting ‘Big Business’ and its interests. I mean, look beyond the guise of it all and see it for what it is. It would be nice if we could know the reality of it but America and all of its global cohorts have done an unbelievable number on our belief systems and what they are “supposed” to be…turning inside out, flipping the bottom to the top, mixing truth with lies. Believing in politics and politicians will never change the plight of the people for the better…look at history and its cycles.
Remember The Wizard of Oz? Well, when We pull back the curtain We can finally know for ourselves that there is no wizard.