Why Romney Won’t Win

George Wenschhof

The number one reason why Mitt Romney will not be victorious on November 6 is he and Republicans just don’t get it.

With, an unemployment rate exceeding eight per cent during the term of President Obama, one would think voters would be clamoring for a change.  After all, no President since the Great Depression has been reelected with such a high unemployment rate.

But, the best Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the Republican Party can do is criticize the President and Democrats, while promoting the same old tired Republican refrain of less taxes and less government.

Instead, what voters want is good government, one that reflects a cooperative nature, is responsive and also effective.

People clearly see the obstructionist actions taken by Republicans in Congress over the past three and one-half years, all designed with one purpose in mind; make President Obama fail.

No effort was made by Republican members in Congress to work together to move the country forward during President Obama’s term in office.  Instead, from the beginning, it was a struggle to pass a much needed stimulus bill to put Americans to work, as Republican members of Congress diluted the proposed funding of the bill by close to fifty per cent.

Conveniently, Republicans fail to mention why a stimulus was needed.  After, years of government deregulation of the financial industry and irresponsible economic decisions on Wall Street driven by greed, the worst economic collapse in America since the Great Depression unfolded.  But, I’ll get back to this issue in a moment. 

What followed Republican obstruction against the stimulus bill was an all out assault against providing Americans with affordable health care.  A basic individual right recognized and provided by every other developed nation in the world.

Instead of recognizing a country moves forward with a healthy citizenry, Republicans fought as strong a battle as they could muster to deny affordable preventative health maintenance, coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions, the right for parents to cover their children with their insurance through the age of twenty-six and more.

Republicans were able to scuttle the single payer and public option, which made the most sense, then opposed passage of the Affordable Care Act with the so called individual mandate, which will result in health care coverage for 30 million uninsured Americans by 2014.

Next up for the Obama administration was financial reform.  You would think after Wall Street tycoons illustrated their total disregard to any sensible financial practice, while pocketing millions for themselves, Republicans would be eager to join an effort to reform and strengthen a financial institution teetering on the precipice of total collapse.

Instead, Republicans, aided by Wall Street Lobbyists, fought to dilute the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill.  Stripped from the bill was the much needed reinstitution of the Glass-Steagall Act and a watered down version of the Volcker rule, both designed to ensure financial institution stability.

Republicans even delayed the start of the Financial Consumer Protection Agency, an agency created by the Dodd-Frank bill to protect consumers against the predatory actions taken by credit card issuers and others.

The main reason Republicans delayed the implementation was they did not like Elizabeth Warren, who championed the creation of the consumer finance protection agency and was in line to be nominated to run it. 

The agency is now up and running, under the direction of another individual and Elizabeth Warren is now a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Where, she is likely to beat incumbent Republican Scott Brown and pick up a Senate seat for Democrats.

Now, with the election less than two months away, Republicans want to point at a national unemployment rate over eight per cent as a reason to not vote for Obama.  Yet, for the past year Republicans have filibustered in the Senate, blocking approval of the Americans Jobs bill promoted by the Obama administration and estimated to create up to one million jobs across the country.

On foreign policy, Republicans are also mute, with Mitt Romney not even giving the war in Afghanistan any credible mention in his party nomination acceptance speech in Tampa a week ago.

Perhaps, it was because in President Obama’s first term, he ended the U.S. involvement in the Iraq war and has a credible plan in place to end U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan by 2014.

Instead, of congratulating the presidential order resulting in the death of the number one terrorist in the world, Osama bin Laden, Republicans sought to focus on leaks to the press on the operation.

Recognizing old conventional styled wars followed by years of nation building do not work, President Obama also effectively implemented the use of special ops and Drones.  This strategy has limited the loss of American lives while eliminating and disrupting the Al-Qaeda terrorist network across the globe.

In addition, instead of working together to reduce the national debt, resulting from previous Republican and Democratic administrations, any attempt to forge a bipartisan agreement was stymied by Republican members of Congress.

When the bipartisan debt reduction committee appointed by President Obama offered their proposal, it was Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) who led the effort to defeat it. 

When you look at the accomplishments achieved by the Obama administration over the first term, it is incredible so much progress has been made in so many areas when Republicans have done nothing but try to stop any program or action which was proposed.

It is not surprising, with eight weeks to go to the November 6 election, President Obama leads Mitt Romney (Real Clear Politics averaging) in the all important electoral vote 221-191.  To win the presidency, a candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes.

In the ten swing states that make up the remaining 126 electoral votes, Obama is currently leading in nine of them.  Romney leads in only North Carolina, while Obama leads in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, Michigan, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.

 

You see, it is not that Americans want less tax and less government as Republicans continue to promote, it is they want reasonable and effective government.

 

Interestingly, Henry Ford, who founded the Ford Motor Company, understood a basic fundamental aspect of economics.  He recognized if he paid his workers well, not only would they stay to work with his company to produce more automobiles; they would also be able to buy one of the cars his company was producing.

 

Governing on behalf of the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class, as Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Republicans continue to promote, is not what this country needs.

Failing to offer details on any proposed domestic or foreign policy initiative and the lack of willingness to display a cooperative approach further illustrates why Romney won’t win in November.

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