ENDORSEMENT: Barack Obama for President
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It’s a trending search term on Yahoo and has leapt to the top of the New York Times “Most Viewed” list this week: candidate Mitt Romney’s 2008 NYT editorial entitled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Ohio voters read this editorial as one more example of the nonsense that Mitt Romney mouths every time he starts trying to pander to some targeted segment of the electorate. But Ohio voters know the importance of the auto industry, and that Obama’s measured approach, and government bailout, saved some of America’s largest manufacturer’s, and a good piece of the U.S., and Ohio’s economy. Women’s rights is key in a state where Romney’s write-off of 47% of the electorate whose lives are touched by the government’s involvement in health care and education, many of them women, put them at odds with a candidate whose messaging never gets beyond jobs and the economy. Romney’s own stands on women’s reproductive and health care rights, reinforced by recent radical Republican gaffes, are all reasons that the gender gap in Ohio will be decisive. All this is why Mitt Romney flip-flops (they kind you wear) are selling on CafePress. Instead, we think the iconic representation of your choice is Cleveland artist George Vlosich III, whose iconic Etch-A-Sketch art mirrors Romney’s unsettling ability to assume voters, especially women voters, have no memory. Except that it takes Vlosich 70-80 hours on one sketch, while Romney sings a different song in front of every microphone. As for Barack Obama, we believe in Obamacare, women’s rights and the Ohio auto industry. This state’s economy is in a strong recovery, in part because of Obama’s policies. Ohio’s unemployment is down 3.6% since July 2009, and since 2010, Ohio’s unemployment has beaten the national average by 1% or more. The 15% of Ohio workers who are union members are more likely to favor Obama’s policies over Romney’s. The 14% of Ohioans who are senior citizens are probably more unnerved by Republican plans to cut Social Security and curtail Medicare than by Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and steady hand on dealing with Social Security’s future. We believe in the stimulus package, we believe in the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” we believe in the direction Obama is leading the country. We believe in his efforts to compromise and reach out to all sides, domestically and internationally, to solve problems. We believe in a lot of the ways that Barack Obama is going about the job of President. And we don’t believe a word that falls from the lips of Mitt Romney. Cool Cleveland endorses Barack Obama for President. |