TENNESSEAN ENDORSEMENT
This has been a presidential election that should be held up as a cautionary lesson for the future.
The lesson? How low American politics can stoop, and how to avoid it ever happening again.
The 2012 presidential race is fraught with confusion and failed expectations, so much so that it is surprising that any reasonable voter would feel comfortable pressing the button for either President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney. What is downright infuriating is that, after four years of an Obama presidency and two years of campaigning and 22 televised debates by Romney, so many questions remain and it is difficult to discern what the next four years would look like with either man in charge.
Aside from 1860, when Abraham Lincoln took charge of the nation on the brink of civil war, and 1932, when Americans devastated by the Great Depression turned to Franklin Roosevelt for hope, few elections have been so critical to the country. In 2012, the United States faces crippling debt; seemingly endless military conflicts and terror threats; an aging population; and sweeping workforce and geopolitical changes that threaten to turn our society upside down.
America needs strong leadership; yet, our leaders in Washington have seldom looked more impotent. The Democratic Obama administration and Republican leaders in Congress have butted heads for four years, and the American people have little to show for it. In that period, only two major initiatives, the Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank financial reform, have passed, and Gov. Romney promises to roll back both if elected.
And we look for a signal from either of the candidates that he will be the one who leads red and blue states into to an honest dialogue that will move America forward with its founding principles intact.
On issue after issue, however, Obama’s and Romney’s positions shift or lack assuring specificity:
