On the Tennessean's endorsement of Mitt Romney

The Tennesseaneditorial board has produced an incoherent argument for why voters should choose Mitt Romney in November.

The editors rightfully point out that Romney’s foreign policy views would take us closer to another ill-fated foreign excursion, this time into Iran.

They rightfully point out that Mitt Romney’s social views are murky, incoherent and inconsistent at best.

They rightfully point out that Romney’s economic plans are dangerously opaque and the math simply does not add up.

And then, inexplicably, they end their review of the choices in this election by saying voters should choose Mitt Romney.

The Tennessean’s editors seem to think that we should reward the Republican Party’s well documented and patterned efforts of obstructionism by handing them the White House for the next four years. This is the political equivalent of giving an unruly child a treat for misbehaving. They absolve the GOP of any wrong-doing in the health care debate, despite the President supporting centrist reforms largely modeled on the plan passed by his Republican challenger in Massachusetts.

The Tennessean’s editors also wonder aloud if the President should have pursued policies that would grow jobs and cut the deficit. Only a small fringe of Ayn Randian acolytes view these two options as compatible. Nearly a century of economic theory backs up the Keynesian economic model of using the borrowing power of the government to replace lost GDP. Additionally, there is no path to budget solvency that does not include an increase in revenues – something the Republican Party and Mitt Romney have pledged they will never – ever – entertain the possibility of.

The Tennessean also neglects to point out that the Republicans have blocked the President’s American Jobs Act of 2011, which the Washington Post reported is “still the best — and most detailed — plan on the table to create jobs.”

The truth that the Tennessean's editors fail to see, is that the President has shown extraordinary leadership in extraordinary times, and Tennessee is better off for it.

Because of the President’s leadership, Tennessee received $500 million for the Race to the Top program that is improving Tennessee’s public education system.

Because of the President’s leadership, the American Auto Industry is alive, and at least 1,000 Tennesseans have good paying jobs in Maury County because the President didn’t think that “letting Detroit go bankrupt” – as Mitt Romney hoped for – was a viable option.

Because of the President’s leadership, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans will have access to health care coverage, and will no longer be discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions or gender.

For these reasons and countless others, President Obama clearly has earned another four years, whether the Tennessean’s editors see it or not.