NOVANEWS
No candidate has all the right policies — that includes Barack Obama. But having weathered the challenges of the last four years, we believe he is in a better position to guide the nation over the next four years — and has earned from voters the privilege to do so.
Express-News Editorial Board
The United States will face major challenges over the next four years. For the first time in history, its citizens confront the prospect of handing down to the next generation a nation that is less wealthy, less healthy, less secure and less in control of its destiny.
President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both laid out plans to avert such national misfortune. Both candidates are earnest in their desire to make the 21st Century another American Century. We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the White House.
Obama took office four years ago amid a meltdown of the nation’s financial, housing and labor markets. He acted swiftly to continue and enhance what had been bipartisan measures to stabilize those markets. He also took new steps to tighten regulations on banks, create a floor under the rising number of home foreclosures and stanch the loss of up to 800,000 jobs per month while also rescuing the U.S. auto industry.
The results: a stock market that has risen more than 60 percent since Obama took office, housing starts in September up 38 percent from one year ago and 31 consecutive months of job growth.
In the international sphere, Obama completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq last year and has established a timetable for an American exit from Afghanistan in 2014. Building on programs developed under the last administration, Obama has directed attacks that have severely weakened the leadership of al-Qaida, including the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.
Beyond dealing with complex issues he inherited, President Obama has taken initiatives to create a better, fairer society. He ended the deportation of young immigrants who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country illegally as children. He ended the ban on gays serving openly in the military. And he pushed through the Affordable Care Act that will extend health care coverage to 30 million Americans who, shamefully in this day and age, still lack access to decent medical care.
President Obama has also had his failings. While Republicans on Capitol Hill deserve a large share of the blame for the breakdown of bipartisan relations in Washington, the president needs to follow the example of PresidentsBill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who were able to work effectively across party lines.
President Obama also did not pursue immigration reform. Ending heartless deportations is a start, but is not enough. The United States needs immigration laws that recognize economic, demographic and security realities.
President Obama has not dealt with the debt crisis, the most important long-term economic and national security threat to our nation. A major misstep was his failure to embrace the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles debt commission, which he created to craft a bi-partisan approach to the crisis.
In a second term, President Obama must rise to the challenge of doing a far better job on all of these counts.
These shortcomings, however, don’t justify a change in leadership, particularly when many of Mitt Romney’s proposals — such as an across-the-board 20 percent cut in taxes and the elimination of unspecified itemized deductions — invite skepticism. So does his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act without offering any meaningful replacement. In addition, the video of him behind closed doors dismissing 47 percent of the population as government-dependent slackers was disheartening and possibly disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency.
No candidate has all the right policies — that includes Barack Obama. But having weathered the challenges of the last four years, we believe he is in a better position to guide the nation over the next four years — and has earned from voters the privilege to do so.
President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both laid out plans to avert such national misfortune. Both candidates are earnest in their desire to make the 21st Century another American Century. We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the White House.
Obama took office four years ago amid a meltdown of the nation’s financial, housing and labor markets. He acted swiftly to continue and enhance what had been bipartisan measures to stabilize those markets. He also took new steps to tighten regulations on banks, create a floor under the rising number of home foreclosures and stanch the loss of up to 800,000 jobs per month while also rescuing the U.S. auto industry.
The results: a stock market that has risen more than 60 percent since Obama took office, housing starts in September up 38 percent from one year ago and 31 consecutive months of job growth.
In the international sphere, Obama completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq last year and has established a timetable for an American exit from Afghanistan in 2014. Building on programs developed under the last administration, Obama has directed attacks that have severely weakened the leadership of al-Qaida, including the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.
Beyond dealing with complex issues he inherited, President Obama has taken initiatives to create a better, fairer society. He ended the deportation of young immigrants who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country illegally as children. He ended the ban on gays serving openly in the military. And he pushed through the Affordable Care Act that will extend health care coverage to 30 million Americans who, shamefully in this day and age, still lack access to decent medical care.
President Obama has also had his failings. While Republicans on Capitol Hill deserve a large share of the blame for the breakdown of bipartisan relations in Washington, the president needs to follow the example of PresidentsBill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who were able to work effectively across party lines.
President Obama also did not pursue immigration reform. Ending heartless deportations is a start, but is not enough. The United States needs immigration laws that recognize economic, demographic and security realities.
President Obama has not dealt with the debt crisis, the most important long-term economic and national security threat to our nation. A major misstep was his failure to embrace the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles debt commission, which he created to craft a bi-partisan approach to the crisis.
In a second term, President Obama must rise to the challenge of doing a far better job on all of these counts.
These shortcomings, however, don’t justify a change in leadership, particularly when many of Mitt Romney’s proposals — such as an across-the-board 20 percent cut in taxes and the elimination of unspecified itemized deductions — invite skepticism. So does his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act without offering any meaningful replacement. In addition, the video of him behind closed doors dismissing 47 percent of the population as government-dependent slackers was disheartening and possibly disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency.
No candidate has all the right policies — that includes Barack Obama. But having weathered the challenges of the last four years, we believe he is in a better position to guide the nation over the next four years — and has earned from voters the privilege to do so.
