In their “dueling” rallies held on Wednesday in Virginia,
President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney did their best to convince their
audiences that each should be in the White House a year from now.
Barack Obama visited Virginia Beach, a central location for
the military in Virginia, while Romney campaigned in Fairfax County, speaking
to veterans.
At his rally in Virginia Beach, President Obama emphasized
America’s gradual progress towards pre-recession economic security. President
Obama stated, “We’re not where we need to be, not yet. We’ve got a lot more
folks who have to get back to work, we’ve got a lot more work to do to make the
middle class secure again.”[1]
In what will no doubt be a campaign theme for the Obama
administration throughout the remainder of the campaign season, President Obama
also portrayed Romney as out of touch and in favor of policies that have been
tried before and failed.
For his part, Romney promised to sustain the strength of the
U.S. military. Romney noted that “The idea of cutting our military commitment
by a trillion dollars over this decade is unthinkable and devastating. And when
I become president of the United States, we will stop it.”[2]
Unfortunately, someone should inform Mr. Romney that the
president alone cannot stop the looming sequestration. And given Romney’s
less-than-popular standing even with Republican members of Congress[3],
it’s highly doubtful that Romney would be able to mend enough fences to kill
the sequestration by his influence alone.
Nonetheless, it’s refreshing to know that Mitt Romney will
not attempt to put more of our country’s workers onto the streets to “cut
costs.” Instead, Romney appears more than willing to put just about everyone
else in the country one step closer to falling through the social safety net
that was largely constructed after the Great Depression of 1929 to help
individuals recovers from circumstances that could not and cannot be foreseen.[4]
Herein lies a fundamental difference between President Obama
and Mitt Romney: the former seeks to learn from history while the latter seeks
to disregard and change it to his own benefit.
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