Election Day is finally upon us, so here are some of my thoughts on the whole shebang.
Who Should Win
Everybody who has ever read this blog knows I think Romney is the man for whom to vote. I think the reasons why are so obvious that he should be up by 20 points, but since he's not, I feel compelled to expand on them. Here goes:
The economy: Obama has been president for four years, and in all that time, there has not been a single month in which the nation's unemployment rate was lower that it was in the worst month of his predecessor's tenure. By constantly vilifying business in general, and openly targeting specific industries for destruction (coal) or confiscation (medicine), Obama has created the kind of anti-business climate that ensures contraction, or at best, growth that is soul-sappingly low. In other words, he has created the precise kind of environment that is sure to reduce job opportunities and guarantee high unemployment...Romney, on the other hand, knows how the economy works by virtue of a decades-long career creating and preserving businesses in the private sector.
National defense: It is one of the biggest enigmas of all time that so many people claim national defense is an Obama strength. The reality is that he has stabbed our allies in the back and coddled our enemies so much that they laugh in our face while acting against us. While doing nothing to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, he refers to that nation's top theocrat as "the supreme leader." He rolls over and lets Putin have his way with him. On his watch, the Taliban has come back from the brink of extinction and resumed power in Afghanistan.
Pardon my French, but when it comes to protecting America, and protecting the great human ideals for which America stands, Obama simply doesn't give a shit...Romney, on the other hand, knows evil when he sees it and is not afraid to call it what it is. From that alone, we can trust that he will not retreat to the cellar when the wolf howls at our door.
The Constitution: It seems like a timeworn right wing cliche to say that liberals don't like the Constitution because it restricts the government's power. But in many ways that cliche is true, and Barack Obama is the most liberal person ever to occupy the Oval Office. The fact of the matter is that he has violated the Constitution so many times it might as well not even exist. His words and deeds have demonstrated contempt even for the First Amendment, which liberals supposedly love. When it comes to upholding the Constitution, that noble document that protects individual rights and liberty by restraining the central power of the federal government, it is hard to imagine how we could possibly do worse than reelect The Exalted One.
Character: Obama constantly blames others for his shortcomings while taking credit for others' achievements. Benghazigate looks like it might be the biggest scandal in presidential history. And Obama routinely opines about things even when he doesn't know the facts, and even when the issue at hand is outside of his authority (see: the Cambridge police "acted stupidly")...What about Romney's character, you ask? For my reply, go
here.
Who Will Win
Your guess is probably as good as mine. I have my doubts about the polls that show the race basically tied, or that show Obama ahead. And I have good reasons for my doubts, since those polls assume Democrats will turn out to vote in just as high numbers, and Republicans in just as low numbers, as in 2008; and also because even when you look at the internal numbers in most of those polls, you find that Independents, who heavily favored Obama in 2008, now heavily favor Romney. Still, I remember not believing the polls in 2000, when they showed Bush and Gore to be basically tied, and we all know how that turned out...But having reliably C'ed my A, I now will go ahead and predict that Romney pulls it out.
The Coverage
As in, media coverage. It has been deplorable. The MSM has been cheering Democrats from the press box for longer than I've been alive, but this year, their Hallelujah chorus has become so obvious that many of them are no longer even trying to pretend they're unbiased. If Obama was a Republican, the coverage of Benghazigate would be so intense and relentless that either he would have resigned by now or the House would have already voted on Articles of Impeachment. Instead, the Old Gray Lady and major broadcast networks aren't saying a word.
Head-Scratching States
There are some states whose voting habits defy my ability to understand, and this year's Grand Prize, Ohio, is one of them. How can a state whose citizens embody solid Midwestern values and work ethic, and are unflinchingly patriotic, and not long ago installed John Kasich in the governor's mansion, be in a position to return a stuck-up anti-American lefty like Obama to the White House?
Pennsylvania is another. I understand why steel workers and coal miners would have reflexively voted Democrat for some time after the New Deal and WWII drew to a close, but I have no idea why any of them have continued to do it all the way up to now. I hope things change this year, as polls suggest they might; but based on past presidential elections, I won't believe it until I see it.
Then there is Nevada. For a long time everyone has been calling this one for Obama, and on the eve of the election it looks like Romney is conceding it. Everyone says it's because of the state's large Hispanic population, but I just don't see how. First, Nevada has been ruby red, not royal blue, more often than not; and Obama has dissed it directly by criticizing people and companies for taking trips to Vegas. In that environment, its unemployment rate is highest in the nation. As far as I'm concerned, to say that Hispanics will vote as a bloc in spite of these figures is no different than saying Hispanics don't think.
NH/VA
New Hampshire and Virginia are states I love. Both have handsome coasts and beautiful mountains. Both have a native population whose sons and daughters cherish liberty and are willing to risk life and limb to support it. Virgnia was in many respects the cradle of the Revolution, and New Hampshire's state motto is "live free or die."
Historically both states tend to vote conservative, but today they suffer from a geographical happenstance that has me worried. In recent decades, hordes of Bostonians have moved into the area around Manchester, New Hampshire, to flee the oppressive taxes and high cost of living of Democrat-controlled Massachusetts. Similarly, hordes of D.C. bureaucrats have settled in Northern Virginia to flee the high crime and horrible schools of the city they run. And in both cases these "immigrants" continue to vote Democrat, oblivious to the cause and effect that say it makes no sense to run from a set of policies in one place, only to enact those same policies in the place you end up.
These states could go either way. Although national polls say Virginia belongs to Romney, my gut tells me not to believe that until I see it. And despite Kelly Ayotte's ascendancy to the Senate in 2010, I am hesitant to believe the Granite State has flipped back to red, though I admit that hesitancy it largely because I don't want to get my hopes up. In any event, I suspect that these two states will have a lot to do with who wins tomorrow night, regardless of what happens in Ohio.
And...
...we shall see what happens. I will be back to opining sometime after that happens. In the interim, as always, God Bless America!
