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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 6 October 2012
“In these final weeks before the 2012 election we have a clear choice between Obama, who steered us out of this crisis in a matter of months, and Romney who would steer us right back into a new crisis.”
Are You Better Off Than 4 Years Ago? Um, YES!
Romney and Ryan asked "Are you better off than 4 years ago?" in August 2012... during the narrow slice of time when August 2008 seemed pretty good. By the end of September2008 we were watching the wheels come off. There is nobody around who remembers that month who would not say "we are better off now than 4 years ago." Counting on us to have short short memories was more successful before YouTube.
If you need a refresher, take a look at George W. Bush on September 24th, 2008. As he announces the collapse of everything we know you can see what he knew we were headed towards. The next President would have a heck of a time getting us out of the problems Bush had created. For a man working on a legacy, he had found his in being the man who disproved the Neo-conservative agenda militarily, economically and socially.
September 24th, 2008
Weeks after these words the private sector was shedding jobs at an incredible rate. In Bush's last month over 800,000 private sector jobs were lost. Immediately under Obama it started to turn around, a little bit of "wait and see" and the few companies who kept their work forces and delayed layoffs did better. The "bikini graph" was one of those powerful data renderings that proved the turnaround. If the opposite graph was available before the 2010 election it would have been everywhere... I mean "STOP THE PRESSES" front page stuff... but it was almost nowhere.
In these final weeks before the 2012 election we have a clear choice between Obama, who steered us out of this crisis in a matter of months, and Romney who would steer us right back into a new crisis. By doubling down on "trickle-down" and striving to be right of George W Bush, Romney has backed himself into a corner.
Are you better off than 4 years ago? Almost certainly! Will you be better off in 4 years with Obama? Or would you like to take your chances with Romney?
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ABOUT Ed Kaine
Ed Kaine is an Occupational Therapist and a Registered Functional Therapist RFT. He writes for VoteDemocratic.US, BigTentProgressives.com, CorrectAngle.com and FunctionalTherapist.org. He also develops databases and websites for various companies
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By Tara Culp- Ressler
6 comments on "Are You Better Off Than 4 Years Ago? Um, YES!"
October 07, 2012 6:55am
If a candidate tells us he is republican then the only thing that counts is the past fifty years of republican history ( which is all negative for minorities , women , working folks , small business and the world and USA. economy ). So what more do you need to make your decision ? NOTHING , political adds are a waste of money that can be put to a far better use .
Debates are even more of a waste and pure idiotic non-sense , I know if I were a Democratic candidate , I would not want to discuss anything with a low IQ , Uncompromising republican . The only thing I would entertain concerning republicans is putting them on a reservation ( like we did the Indians who would not pledge ) this is the only solution to the unconstitutional policy of the GOP.
October 06, 2012 1:58pm
As a retiree with defined benefits and pension, I lost nothing in the meltdown. Many were not as fortunate. However with a repugnant party throttling the President's every program, you cn't blame him.
WA
October 06, 2012 1:17pm
Rome-ney will say anything, promise anything, to get the keys to the Pentagon. His voters know it, in their kinda crazy way, too. What the Romulus and Remus ticket is all about is tightening America's death grip on the world. Advancing environmental death that almost the entire U.N. opposes (the CO2 problems) the white Americans are making one last grab at power, a move I think is not just morally and environmentally wrong, it just won't work! Chavez of Venezuela and Assad of Syria were both elected, and now look at the new government in Egypt, and how much do you think Iraq likes us now? Mittler CAN get us $2 a gallon gasoline, but the rest of the world will have to pay a lot more. How long will 9 billion people stand by as white America tries to dominate them in the way that previous empires have done for a while and then fallen? How many suicide bombers will be generated by Mittler trying to take over the world for America? How many Iraqs? How many Viet Nams? And the possibility of nuclear suicide bombers! Sorry, Mittler, it just won't work, it will spread massive death on the humans of planet Earth, and little else.
October 06, 2012 11:17am
I do think this is not the best question to be asking prior to the election. Some people are better off, but then, if you had a full-time job 4 years ago and you have none now, then you're obviously going to reply in the negative.
The real questions seem to be: is the country, in general, better off, and are we heading in the right direction?
Romney is an unknown quantity as far as being a president, so we have to look at what extreme wing of the Republican party he is courting, and what he has flip-flopped so visibly on over the years. He truly seems to be like a weather vane rooster, twisting in the wind. What he supported 2 years ago might be something he condemns today.
Thus, it's clear that he's the kind of man who will say anything, take any position, if he thinks it will help him get elected.
Do we really want a man like that in the White House?
And since he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, lives in great wealth, and is supported by the wealthy (because he's protective of their interests), can we really believe his sincerity when he says he"feels" the pain of the suffering Americans?
He's an accomplished actor, I'll give him that, even when he's saying what he knows are blatant lies. Whatever it takes for him to win, he'll do.
But can we trust him to safeguard Social Security and Medicare? Will he sacrifice our slender "safety nets" in his pursuit of more perks for his class?
These, and similar queries, should be on our minds before we cast our ballots, not simply the old "are you better off...?
October 06, 2012 9:51am
myself yes my bro and sis no
October 06, 2012 9:18am
The difficult part here lies in deciding whether we are better off "with" President Obama or simply "without" George Bush. I suspect that the true answer is a combination of both.