OPINION:
I think it is time for a change in presidential leadership. This is a tough decision for me this time around, as I voted for President Obama in 2008.
I fail to see how Mr. Obama could miss opportunities in 2009 and 2010 to initiate major job-creation legislation when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. A look at history reveals what President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his first two years when faced with the same (if not a worse) situation. As an African-American voter, it is hard to describe the feelings of pride, tears and glee I felt on Inauguration Day in 2009 when Mr. Obama was sworn in.
My decision to vote Republican (my parents’ traditional party) this time is a difficult but necessary one. My decision is based on the obvious fact that America needs an economic reboot and, although I think he lacks something in common sense, Mitt Romney has a very good business head on his shoulders. I reckon a President Romney will figure a way out of these three-plus years of economic quagmire.
Consider this scenario: An outgoing president leaves the incoming president, in the words of Bill Clinton, “a total mess.” Unemployment reaches double digits. The first year of the new president’s term is ranked as the worst since the Great Depression. The incoming president’s party captures the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Over the next four years unemployment falls from 25 percent to 9 percent. That was Roosevelt.
As a corporate human resources director, I have completed and reviewed many annual employee performance appraisals. If Mr. Obama were a corporate employee, his performance appraisal would range from unsatisfactory to requiring a performance-improvement plan.
Unlike Roosevelt, Mr. Obama missed opportunities to make substantial job program improvements to the sagging economy when his party controlled the executive and legislative branches of government in 2009 and 2010. Critical momentum and time were lost in those years when the Democrats could have rammed through big job-creating legislation.
REX CONTE
Oak Park, Ill.
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