As President Romney begins his first term, let's look back., page 1

Now that we're winding down from celebrating President Romney's inauguration (or cursing it, as you prefer), it's time to look back on Obama's term as President to see what went wrong, and what could have been done to salvage it.

His start could hardly have been more auspicious. He had a 70% approval rating, both houses of Congress, and a clear mandate from the people to change things. Articles were being written about the death of the Republican Party.

He had two major problems to deal with; the economy, and the Middle-East.

Everybody agreed that the economy's weakness wasn't his fault and that anything he could do to improve it would be all to the good. Besides, the experience of the American economy showed that every recession ended within a couple of years, and the worse the recession, the more strongly it came back.

As far as the Middle-East, everybody knew that he campaigned for friendship, cooperation, and mutual respect. The whole world loved him and awarded him a Peace Prize.

So with all of this power and acceptance, he decided to force through health care, and a second stimulus package. These were questionable moves since the administration had to steamroll over many Republican amendments and objections to obtain passage. He coupled this with the attitude of "I won, you don't matter." All of this angered the Republicans and made it nearly impossible for the administration to make significant bi-partisan progress in future issues.

This "Us against Them" attitude affected the American public as well. Their anger created the Tea Party and may have been the reason Democrats lost the House in 2010.

After the 2010 elections it became more clear that Obama's policies weren't working, either to bring peace to the Middle-East, get the economy recovering at a pace anyone could notice, or cut the deficit in half as promised.

Thus began a period of people examining Obama critically and deciding he had significant flaws. This critical examination, and the victories in 2010, revived the Republicans and made a challenge to Obama seem possible.

During the last two years of his presidency, the economy became the number one issue as a smaller and smaller percentage of Americans had jobs and the median income for Americans who did have jobs fell over $4,000.

Obama's use of drones in countries without the permission required by the War Powers Act,angered peace loving Americans, and allowed republicans to attack on a new front. Add to that the green energy company scandals, oil pipeline delay, Fast and Furious, lack of transparency, and the Benghazi attack which caused American deaths and putting the lie to Obama's claim that al-Qaeda was nearly finished, and you have a Presidency with no record left to run on.

When it came time to run for re-election, therefore, having nothing to run on, his campaign ran against the Republican. The press was filled with attacks on then candidate Romney, and he was barely able to stay even. But that "evenness"was largely because the skewed polls showed Obama with a lead and helped depress Republican support.

Then, as we all remember, came the First Debate, the single event most responsible for ending Obama's presidency. True, Obama looked bad, not presidential at all, but that wasn't the problem. Romney looked really good. His presentation told the undecided and independent voters, "Hey, I'm normal, you can trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I can fix this mess, and I'm more presidential than Obama." All true of course, but it was the underlying message that was even more important.

Voters remembered all the horor stories about Romney and realized they weren't true, they were just smear pieces, so the media, as spokespeople for the Obama campaign, were discounted from then on.

Further Obama knew he had lost the first debate badly, and made the mistake of going back to smear pieces or irrelevant whines to try to catch up, but people weren't buying it anymore.

That's why, as far back as October 18, 2012 you could see stories like this

The University of Colorado (CU) prediction renowned for perfect accuracy will predict a popular-vote win for Mitt Romney later this month, Campus Reform has learned.

The poll has accurately predicted every presidential election since it was developed in 1980. It is unique in that it employs factors outside of state economic indicators to predict the next president.

CU Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Berry, who spoke with Campus Reform at length on Tuesday, said there is at least 77 percent chance that Romney will win the popular vote.

www.campusreform.org...

Oct 18, 2012 First Time Romney Takes the Lead in the Electoral College Poll

Among likely voters Romney is supported by 52%, Obama by 45% for a seven point lead.

www.gallup.com...

WASHINGTON – Despite concerted Democratic attacks on his business record, Republican challenger Mitt Romney scores a significant advantage over President Obama when it comes to managing the economy, reducing the federal budget deficit and creating jobs, a national USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years.

The findings raise questions about Obama's strategy of targeting Bain's record in outsourcing jobs and hammering Romney for refusing to commit to releasing more than two years of his tax returns. Instead, Americans seem focused on the economy, where disappointment with the fragile recovery and the 8.2% unemployment rate are costing the president.

usatoday30.usatoday.com...

So while Obama's presidency was exciting and emotional, it scattered the seeds of it's own destruction at the start, and never pulled those weeds out. We wish our country, under President Romney, well.

In this extremely brief summary, much has been left out. I'm sure I can count on ATSers to add their thoughts on how Romney won, or, why Obama lost.

reply to post by charles1952

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It ain't over till it's over...Romney has not won yet; and don't be so sure that he will.

I really don't know who I am voting for. Why do you think most on ATS have already decided?

reply to post by AtticusFinch and Caladonea

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Dear AtticusFinch and Caladonea,

You misunderstand me. I'm truly not trying to sway anyone's opinion. This close to the election, just about everyone has decided, and I'm pretty sure everyone on ATS has.

Honestly, I attempted a short listing of the things that have led Obama to this point. Every indication is that he will lose, but of course that's not certain. But how in the world could he have gotten into a situation where he is barely holding on by his fingernails? And against a Republican who never really excited anyone?

Obama should be up by 10-15%, not down by 7%. What happened? That's what I'm trying to explore.

With respect,
Charles1952

P.s. I truly am "just a guy" I make it a point not to lie on ATS, and I haven't.

reply to post by AtticusFinch

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I suspect you won't believe anything I say, so may I suggest you go to my profile and look at my posts and threads? Oh and by the way, your source says posters can get paid up to 50 cents a post. If you truly think I two-finger typed that OP for 50 cents, you may not be paranoid, but you're certainly something bad.

NOW, can we get back to the topic and the OP?

reply to post by ararisq

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Dear ararisq,

Thanks. You bring up a point which I had only touched on, the Electoral College I see a lot of projections, all with different outcomes, but they all seem to have large numbers of states listed as "toss-ups." Have you got any sense of how those states are leaning? All one way or the other?

Aww, nuts. I suppose I should go look it up. Why bother you, my honored guest?

With respect,
Charles1952

P.s. Wait a minute, that's only going to be interesting if the popular vote and Electoral College vote disagree. If Romney gets the popular vote, and the College goes to Obama, what do you think will happen to the country? I suspect some will be at least mildly irritated. - C -

reply to post by ararisq

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Dear ararisq,

I poked around over at Real Clear Politics, not my favorite, but it will do. They have ten sates listed as toss-ups. Seven of the ten are closer than three per cent: VA, OH, FL, NH, WI, IA, and CO. Romney has the lead in CO and FL. The other three states are Obama's (so far). MI at 4.2%, PA at 5%, and NV with 3%.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by caladonea

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Dear caladonea,

YOU CAUGHT ME. I reached an unjustified conclusion. Thanks for showing me that my thinking was incorrect. I over-generalized. There are so many people in the political forums who seem to have their candidate's name tattooed across their foreheads, that I jumped to the wrong conclusion that everyone around here had decided. Sorry.

With respect,
Charles1952

Originally posted by charles1952
reply to post by caladonea

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Dear caladonea,

YOU CAUGHT ME. I reached an unjustified conclusion. Thanks for showing me that my thinking was incorrect. I over-generalized. There are so many people in the political forums who seem to have their candidate's name tattooed across their foreheads, that I jumped to the wrong conclusion that everyone around here had decided. Sorry.

With respect,
Charles1952

Heads up...Charles. (like I said previously) I really don't know who I am going to vote for...(at this point and time).

A short time ago...I got my ballot in the mail and on the ballot here are the choices for President:

Barack Obama & Joe Biden (Democratic Party)

Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan (Republican Party)

Gary Johnson & James P. Gray (Libertarian Party)

Virgil Goode & James N. Clymer (Constitution Party)

Jill Stein & Cheri Honkala (Green Party)

Peta Lindsay & Yari Osorio (Socialism & Liberation Party)

James Harris & Alyson Kennedy (Socialist Workers Party)

Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson & Luis J. Rodriguez (Justice Party)

Write-In (vote) which of course is blank

I am wondering about the other candidates; I really don't know anything about them (right now) at all.

I am guessing that many people may do the (write-in vote).

reply to post by charles1952

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Interesting premise.

I'd be interested to see a hypothesis on Obama's victory as a contrast.

reply to post by beezzer

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Dear beezer,

Thank you very much. I wanted to try a different approach from the "X is terrible, but Y is worse" mudhole we seem to have become caught in. I chose Romney as the fictional winner because that seems to be where the election is heading.

I'd love for someone to do something intelligent on why Obama won, reversing my little fiction. This may have hit a biased blind spot for me, because I'm having trouble seeing why Obama would win, unless it's by a successful campaign of "Forget about Obama, Romney is a monster."

Oh, it's generally conceded that the economy is the issue this year. Bill Clinton just issued an interesting statement:

Washington, Oct. 20 (ANI): Former US President Bill Clinton has said that President Barack Obama is facing a tough re-election race because "impatient" Americans haven't fully recognized an economy on the mend.

Campaigning for Obama in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Clinton urged voters to judge Obama on the past three years since he took office, in which private sector job growth has made up for lost ground.

"This shouldn't be a race. The only reason it is, is because Americans are impatient on things not made before yesterday and they don't understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory again," the Huffington Post quoted Clinton, as saying.

news.yahoo.com... In short, Obama should be ahead by miles, but the voters are starting to blame him for the economy, when he's only had four years to fix it. To me, that doesn't sound like a strong sales pitch, but what do I know.

Oh, and Gallup now has four days in a row with Romney at least 6% ahead of Obama.

With respect,
Charles1952

reply to post by sealing

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Dear sealing,

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. No excuse.

Ain't gonna happen my friend .
President Romney? Vp Ryan?
Nope. Way too extreme social issues.

I'm curious about "Way too extreme." Is that a position that only 10% of the population accepts? If it has the backing of, say 40%, is it still "Way too extreme?" Or is a position that you don't agree with, "Way too extreme?"

I do wonder at your interest in social issues. Most of the places I check indicate the economy is the driver in this election, and social issues aren't having a big impact.

Obama made a big mistake when was elected.
Instead pushing everything he could through congress
when Dems had the House,

But isn't that what he did? I think it was a mistake that what he pushed through Congress was healthcare and TARP, but he certainly wasn't delayed in the first two years by trying to work with Republicans. (Besides, every other President I can recall has been able to work with the opposing party.)

And the Tea Party? A group of citizens furious with Washington? I'm sure you know that there were Members of the House of Representatives associated with the Tea Party who were elected for the first time in 2010. Do you know how many? Seventeen. Four percent of the House of Representatives.

I understand that you would prefer to have Obama for eight years. But do you really think he's lost his supporters among every group because he tried to be bipartisan?

Why do you really think he's fighting for his political life?

With respect,
Charles1952

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