Pray for an Obama victory

The excellent Clinton presidency (his peccadillo with Monica should be forgotten) was followed by a disastrous Bush losing a lot of goodwill in the world. I was happy with the election of Obama who did a nice job in restoring the American position in the world. Alas, his presidency was plagued by a financial crisis. Policies were needed to stem the downturn. Now Romney is accusing Obama for increasing the deficit. Boasting of his successes in economic matters I wonder if Romney ever heard of John Maynard Keynes? 

Obama gave priority to stop the 800,000 job losses per month by supporting businesses (banks, automobile industry etc) in stead of balancing the budget and was even able regardless of the dire economic situation in the world to create jobs. How much more unemployment in the USA would have happened if Obama would have chosen as priority a balanced budget? 

Following the primaries and the debates I start not to understand the support for Romney/Ryan. This team is comparable to extremists by not accepting gays and as such throwing away 10 per cent of the population. Add to this the 47 per cent mentioned by Romney as a loss and the support by many Americans is beyond me. To force their beliefs on all Americans by not allowing free choice is not democratic. To follow your religious beliefs is fine but these shouldn’t have a place in government policies. This is a private matter which cannot be levied on all Americans as every American is entitled to his own set of beliefs. Very little is said of Ryan’s results as a congressman. Are there none? Or is the lowering of taxes on arrows that making hunting even more painful for animals the only one? And what to think of someone finding his inspiration in St Thomas Aquinas, as if we are still living in the dark medieval ages? Fine with me but there cannot be a place for this kind of inspiration in politics. I will refrain on commenting on the laughable idea that by cutting tax rates and increasing spending for the military a balanced budget can be reached. As Obama said, “The math doesn’t check out.”

Nor will I comment on the criticism by Romney of government financing of certain areas of research. As a businessman Romney should know companies are profit oriented and don’t spend money on research not geared to profit. Romney completely denies the spin-offs of this kind of research causing the progress in this world. Most telling for me was the debate on foreign policy. Romney agreed with nearly all the policies of Obama, in stark contrast to the period before this debate. Maybe he starts to understand that strong talk will not give the desired result. This flip flopping was a real eye-opener. On election day, I will pray to all that is dear to me that Obama will be re-elected for the benefit of the USA and the world.

Egon Wout

Bangkok