10/28/12, “Prudent Change: Romney promises hope for recovery,” Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial
“The tone of the 2012 campaign might best be captured by the need to begin with an emphasis on what the Republican candidate will not do. Mitt Romney will not raise taxes on the middle class. He will not destroy Medicare. And he will not lie to the American people every time he opens his mouth.
Political campaigns exaggerate grossly, play loose with the facts and cast the opposition in the worst light imaginable. Yet it is difficult to recall a campaign less truthful than President Obama’s in 2012. Its foundation rests on deeply misleading assertions about Romney, a strategy made inevitable by the current administration’s weak record.
Barack Obama’s accomplishments are too few to merit re-election. So he attacks.
His offense is intended to distract from policies that have led to nearly four years of economic stagnation, stubbornly high unemployment, collapsing middle-class incomes, increasing rates of poverty, rising prices for life’s most basic necessities — and shrinking American influence around the globe.
Obama has proven, in Americans’ real-world experience, that massive government spending, suffocating regulatory expansion, feckless diplomacy and exploding debt do not foster peace and prosperity. Quite the opposite. It is — with considerable urgency — time to change.
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The Obama campaign has chosen a novel approach, claiming, in essence, that the Republican nominee means nothing that he says, except when it serves the needs of the incumbent. Thus, the relentless palaver about higher taxes and crashing entitlements, all delivered under the deceptive cover of “bipartisan” studies and “impossible” math. And then there’s the master of smirk, Joe Biden, hanging around just for laughs.
In the service of accuracy, let’s look at the generally straightforward proposals and philosophy espoused by Romney, who strikes us as both more earnest and more accomplished than your average presidential candidate.
Romney understands the value of free enterprise, appreciates its utterly unique ability to alleviate poverty, unleash creative endeavor, spread wealth and lift the burden of ceaseless backbreaking labor. In this year’s presidential campaign, he is alone in that respect.
Romney’s plan to spur economic growth — a phrase that seems absent from the Obama vocabulary — offers a plausible and pragmatic path to a more energized private sector, the essential element in reviving a robust economy that builds jobs, raises individual incomes, rewards innovation and halts the suicidal expansion of public debt.
He promises to:
- use America’s abundant energy resources to drive growth;
- cut the deficit by reducing federal spending to 20 percent of the economy or less;
- open new markets overseas for American goods and services while defending U.S. interests abroad;
These statements of principle are sound and strike an important contrast with Obama.
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Romney will improve a dysfunctional tax system, as did Ronald Reagan, to encourage work, investment and risk-taking. Less complexity means less corruption and cronyism. By contrast, Obama claims a $60 billion annual tax increase on higher-income Americans, including successful small businesses, will magically erase trillion-dollar deficits while providing extra cash for education, medicine, research and all-around middle-class happiness.
Obama pretends that Republican reformers pose the only real threats to Medicare and Medicaid. Romney acknowledges that these programs face forced marches to bankruptcy unless someone has the courage to fix them. He promises to examine means-testing, market solutions, competition and state-level innovation. His is a progressive approach.
Romney also promises to repeal Obamacare — a singularly necessary step to restore America’s entrepreneurial spirit — and replace it with reforms that will not bust the budget, not trample individual rights, not undermine the independence of patients and medical professionals. Turns out, an economic crisis is no time to insist on an overwhelming and incoherent government program that does little to solve problems but much to suppress job-creation. Repeal may be the most effective stimulus package passed in nearly a decade.
* * * * *
National security ranks as any president’s first duty to his countrymen. Obama’s record on foreign affairs, while perhaps less disturbing than his dismal performance on domestic matters, nevertheless fails to inspire confidence. Romney’s analysis at VMI earlier this month is accurate:
“The president is fond of saying that ‘The tide of war is receding.‘ And I want to believe him as much as anyone. But when we look at the Middle East today — with Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in Syria threatening to destabilize the region, with violent extremists on the march, and with an American ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of al-Qaida affiliates — it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office.”
And Romney correctly diagnoses the root cause of Obama’s failure to make the world safer for Americans and for liberty:
“I believe that if America does not lead, others will — others who do not share our interests and our values — and the world will grow darker, for our friends and for us. America’s security and the cause of freedom cannot afford four more years like the last four years. I am running for president because I believe the leader of the free world has a duty, to our citizens, and to our friends everywhere, to use America’s great influence — wisely, with solemnity and without false pride, but also firmly and actively — to shape events in ways that secure our interests, further our values, prevent conflict, and make the world better — not perfect, but better.”
This is the right approach, expressed with the appropriate mix of confidence, clarity and humility. Romney is ready to take command, as he demonstrated in Monday’s debate.
* * * * *
Four years ago, Barack Obama’s campaign and election generated remarkable pride and optimism, even among many of those who did not vote for him. He seemed filled with promise.
But his presidency has been filled with disappointment and failure. Those issues that inspired the most passion among his supporters — principally having to do with the war powers of the executive and the tension between civil liberty and national security — have been the ones on which his promise-breaking has been most feckless.
Obama’s policies have paralyzed our country’s economy and pushed its budget to the brink of catastrophe. Our allies abroad are nervous, our enemies encouraged. And yet the president offers no change and little hope. His campaign has hit a single endless negative note, one that ultimately rings false.
Perhaps most disappointing has been the president’s divisive rhetoric and his inability to forge alliances with the opposing party to find solutions. Republicans share the blame for the angry tone in American politics, but it was Obama who pledged just four years ago to bridge the gap between red and blue, liberal and conservative. Instead, the man who sold himself as our first post-partisan president has proved to be our most partisan president.
During the debates, the president’s personal attacks on his opponent were, most often, met with strong but dignified answers. The president showed himself to be the less presidential of the two contenders. As a result, we know now who is better suited to lead a great but troubled nation.
Mitt Romney has succeeded as a family man, governor, entrepreneur, Olympic leader. He is a man of character, a problem-solver, a turnaround specialist. He has earned our enthusiastic endorsement. America needs President Romney.” via Free Republic
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