The 2012 Presidential Election Campaign and Decision

How can voters decide between the two candidates, one of whom will be not only president, but also leader of the free world?

The 2012 presidential election campaign is almost over except for the debates, which are really beauty contests.  Unfortunately, obtaining accurate information on the major issues during the campaign has turned into a nightmare of too many lies.

Hopefully, the pre-election list below, organized around domestic policy issues and foreign policy issues, will help by providing a series of choices that the American people need to make regarding significant issues.  When voters decide between the list options and tally them, they will arrive at the presidential candidate who best represents their values and issue positions and whom they should vote for on Tuesday, November 6.

Domestic Policy Issues

  • Extending Bush tax cuts vs. Eliminating them
  • Reducing dividend/capital gain taxes vs. Increasing these taxes

Foreign Policy Issues

That's the list.  Of course, it's not definitive.  However, it's a good snapshot of what the major issue differences are in this important election.

The list stacks the deck against President Obama, but he stacked the deck against himself by his domestic and international actions and policies during his presidency.

An excellent examination of Obama's economic disasters is in "Obama's Got to Go" in the August 19 Newsweek by eminent historian Niall Ferguson. His conclusion:

The voters now face a stark choice. They can let Barack Obama's rambling, solipsistic narrative continue until they find themselves living in some American version of Europe, with low growth, high unemployment, even higher debt-and real geopolitical decline. Or they can opt for real change: the kind of change that will end four years of economic underperformance, stop the terrifying accumulation of debt, and reestablish a secure fiscal foundation for American national security.

British author and journalist Melanie Phillips in her September 13 blog post called "The Guilty Men Behind the Arab Winter" said this about the importance of America's presidential election for the security of the West:

While America reels under assault from the very forces unleashed by its own President, the fanatics running the Iranian regime are holding their breath that Obama will be re-elected so that they can progress unhindered to the creation of their genocide bomb. Never have the American people been faced with such a momentous choice for the future of the world than the one they will make on November 6.

Regardless of the issues, there is the future of America, as famed economist Thomas Sowell says in his article "'Issues' or America?," posted at Townhall on August 21:

There are some very serious issues at stake in this year's election -- so many that some people may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Individual issues are the trees, but the forest is the future of America as we have known it. The America that has flourished for more than two centuries is being quietly but steadily dismantled by the Obama administration during the process of dealing with particular issues.

Based on Obama's crippling domestic and international policies for America and his dreadful performance as president and leader of the free world, the option for voters is obvious -- list or not, Niall Ferguson's assessment or not, and the warnings of Melanie Phillips and Thomas Sowell or not.  Hopefully, the electorate will make that obvious choice.

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