Blog | Balancing the Scales

Barack Obama has won! But Election Day 2012…What does it really mean? While we are very focused on the fact that President Obama will remain in the White House for another four years, the Election Day results are full of complicated victories and valuable lessons.

It would be so easy to assume to take Election Day at face value. I would argue it would be dangerous to do so. Barack Obama’s victory in the Electoral College will look like a landslide, but an examination of the popular vote indicates a much closer race. Further, the results also show a very polarized nation. The Obama campaign is a study of modern political science and demography. They understood what groups constituted their base, and then they pursued them relentlessly. One group that didn’t fall into the Obama base in large numbers was white men who didn’t work in the auto industry. Married white women also were not big supporters of Obama in 2012.

As America’s first Black president anticipates his second term, this nation must confront its resurgent comfort with racism and negative racial rhetoric and imagery. As a candidate, Mitt Romney has the opportunity to repudiate the nasty and unnecessarily inflammatory racial and racist rhetoric spewed by his campaign surrogates. But Romney looked the other way as John Sununu, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump took to social media and traditional media in a game of racist one-upmanship with each other.

The role of the Latino community will take on mythic proportions as the story of the 2012 Elections will be retold…and rightfully so. After being discussed in a manner that was either dismissive or disgusting during the GOP primaries with talk of “self-deportation” or electrified fences, the Latino community was waiting for someone to say something reasonable. The executive order around the DREAM kids was policy change that the Latino community could believe in.

The LGBT community also knew it had a friend in President Obama, despite earlier frustration with him. President Obama repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a policy that institutionalized keeping active duty military personnel in the closet. Conversely, a deployed soldier was booed during a GOP debate for asking a question. But the LGBT community and the world knew President Obama has the inclusive spirit contemplated when we say “We the People” when he expressed his personal support for marriage equality.

Women make up over 50% of the registered electorate. The first official act that President Barack Obama did was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier to sue based on gender discrimination. So Barack Obama hit the ground running where women are concerned and never stopped. The GOP presented themselves as the perfect foil to Obama, especially in the past two years. There were some, including me, who thought that this year was going to become the Year of the Women. Sandra Fluke was called a “slut” by Rush Limbaugh. Mitt Romney offered some lukewarm response and Barack Obama called Ms. Fluke personally. There are myriad compelling cross currents involved in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The landmark legislation of the first term of Obama Administration, Obamacare, is extremely beneficial to women, whether it is for our own care, the care of a child, or the care of an aging, sick parent. The Affordable Care Act is now safe from threats to “repeal and replace.”

The election of 2012 is noteworthy for women because it is the year that we rejected efforts to destroy progress and go back to a time when women had little control over their bodies and their earning potential. Throughout the country there were candidates for the House of Representatives and US Senate who expressed extreme views that would have endangered the physical and economic lives of women. Those candidates LOST! The idea that in 2012 there was a debate about the definition of rape is offensive and shocking. Let’s clear it up once and for all: Rape is rape because no means no. The law is clear about abortion, but the procedure should be available since it’s legal. The law is settled, let’s move on. I think paycheck fairness is one area where we could focus our energy instead. The fact that the Violence Against Women Act remains in limbo is unacceptable. But there are 20 women in the US Senate now, a record. Let’s hope that makes a difference and we can focus on issues that really matter to women.

President Obama will probably have the opportunity to appoint another Supreme Court justice. I think it would be amazing to see the first Black woman take her place in the highest court in the land. But there are many other firsts that could be achieved…first Asian-American, first Native-American, first open LGBT justice…there is need for diversity on the bench and President Obama is the person to achieve that goal.

The Obama campaign probably knew whether you preferred Coke, Pepsi or 7-Up. But the one thing they didn’t know was whether you would be subject to voter suppression or voter intimidation. This trend toward shaping the outcome of the election by controlling who can access the polls must stop. All of American benefitted from the fact that the efforts in Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states were not successful. The people who would have been disproportionately impacted would have been the elderly and college students. The folks who invested the country and to whom we owe a debt on one end, and on the other end, we have the generation we are trying to teach the value of civic engagement and instill the habit of voting…these are the targets of the GOP campaign of voter suppression. It is shameful. There is such hope for our country because groups like the NAACP and the Advancement Project successfully fought these voter ID laws and state officials. Here’s what was amazing, voters were energized by the obstacles, not discouraged. It didn’t matter what they need to get to do it, they were going to vote. We need to remember that every Election Day and have the same passion and commitment.

Passion and commitment… In the final analysis, that was what made the difference. This election was the most expensive election in American history on the federal, state and local levels. At the top of the ticket, almost $2 Billion was spent in pursuit of the White House, with the Romney campaign spending over $1 billion. This campaign was the first presidential campaign is the post-Citizens United world. The big money interests didn’t disappoint. The dumped money into the Romney campaign as though they thought they were buying tickets to the opera… Maybe they were. But all the money the world can’t buy passion and commitment. As Election Day drew closer, television ads lost their effectiveness, but passion and commitment motivated tens of thousands of volunteers who fanned out across the country to phone bank, knock on doors, and show up at rallies to support President Obama. Negative ads might move the news cycle, but a Get Out the Vote strategy moves voters.

Barack Obama won. This is great news for the country…all of the country. There are some folks who would have you believe that this is only good news for the people who want free stuff. Absurd. It’s time for the country to unite behind this president…for real this time.

The “Fiscal Cliff” and potential sequestration loom on the horizon if all of us don’t get our act together and move forward. The time for fighting is over. The time for unity has arrived. This is the United States of America, and we have just re-elected our president.

You may not respect the man, but respect the office.

Election Day 2012…What does it mean? It means that we have to see that the country is changing is some wonderful ways…we embraced our better angels. But after some rest, it is time to get back to the work of restoring the nation economically, recovering from Sandy, fixing big issues like immigration, education and climate change and setting the course for a secure future.

On another day, there will be an autopsy on the Romney campaign, but not today. Today it is sufficient to say that President Obama won and GOP must do some soul searching about its tactics and its lowest common denominator assumptions about the country.

We all voted. The votes are counted. The work begins. Let’s do what Americans do…Thrive.

It is late October. Our thoughts should be on Halloween, Election Day, Thanksgiving or the many other fall rites of passage as we barrel toward Christmas and winter. But for those of us on the East Coast or who have loved ones on the East Coast, all we can think about is stormy weather. Hurricane Sandy is lumbering toward the New York Tri-State Area with the icy, yet plodding, determination of “The Godfather’s” feared enforcer Luca Brasi.

A hurricane in New York in LATE OCTOBER? I don’t know why some folks think climate change is a lie.

Although the technical dates of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane seasons are from June 1st to November 30th, it is extremely unusual that a hurricane would manage to make its way up the Atlantic Coast at this time of year. I am no meteorologist, but from what I understand, arguably, the water should normally be too cold to allow a hurricane to intensify. Sandy is intriguing because she is appears to be something of a weather hybrid, a Frankenstorm - she’s both a hurricane and a traditional Nor’easter associated with this time of year. No matter how you classify this storm, Sandy is dangerous.

If Sandy weren’t dangerous, then the federal government and New York-based financial trading floors wouldn’t have closed today. If Sandy wasn’t a substantial storm, towns along the coast of New Jersey and the south shore of Long Island wouldn’t have been evacuated. If Sandy didn’t give us something to be fear, then several states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, as far north as Maine, and as far west as Ohio would not have declared a state of emergency prior to the storm making landfall. Sandy is enormous and slow-moving. Every report I hear makes her sound more and more ominous.

Whether you planned to move about by planes, trains, or automobiles, if you haven’t gotten where you are going, forget about it. Although the major New York airports are open, the runways are flooded, and the terminals are eerily empty. The Midtown, Holland, Lincoln, and Battery Tunnels are either closed or about to be closed. The New York MTA has taken the virtually unprecedented step and shut down subway service. The MTA hasn’t halted service since…LAST YEAR when Hurricane Irene blew into town.

As Yogi Berra said, this is deja vu all over again. Mass transit shut down. People price gouged panicked consumers trying to get gas and D-Cell batteries. There was the near certainty that the power would go out, but the equal uncertainty about when the lights would come back on. Some folks spent weeks without power in the wake of Irene. Property damaged. Businesses lost money. The estimates said that there was a total of $15.8 BILLION of damages due to Irene. But it was summer. It seemed reasonable to experience a hurricane, even one so horrible with such prolonged and expensive devastation, in the summer.

It is autumn now. It doesn’t seems reasonable that the entire Eastern Seaboard is bracing for a tropical storm so big and complicated that it has been called the Frankenstorm. As much as I hate snow, isn’t that more appropriate for this time of year than a hurricane?

At a certain point, we have to start asking questions because things seem different from what we remember. In my opinion, we are long past that point, but maybe the one-two punch of Irene and Sandy will be the wake-up call that some folks need to begin to think about these issues.

We just had the warmest year on record, with wildfires and droughts and reminders that the climate is changing. 2012 was also the year that a former climate change skeptic, who is funded by the Koch Brothers, came around and accepted what many of us already knew: Global warming is occurring and greenhouse gases from man-made emissions is the primary cause.

If you read this before the storm, please learn the hard lessons taught by Katrina and Irene – there is no valor in riding out the storm in the path of danger. If you are told to evacuate, please gather your loved ones, your pictures, and your important documents (e.g.,birth and marriage certificates, insurance documents) – AND GO! If you don’t have to evacuate, look in on neighbors who are older or unwell to make sure they are okay. Check www.ready.gov for additional emergency information.

I don’t know why some folks think climate change is a lie. But today it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you, my family and friends are safe. In the face of this very stormy weather, my prayers and good thoughts are with you. Be safe.

All three presidential debates have taken place. We have seen Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. There are less than two weeks left until Election Day. We should have a very clear sense of what policies the candidates are proposing, the direction they want to take the country – we should have a full measure of each man running for the office of President of the United States.

But we don’t for one of the candidates, Mitt Romney. The full measure of Mitt is lost in the numerous tortured political positions of the Romney Sutra. It is confusion, entitlement, hypocrisy, dishonesty, chaos and deception.

It is amazing that we don’t know Willard Mitt Romney. He has been running for president since mid-way through his term as governor of Massachusetts, probably before. He began to run for Election Day 2012 on February 7, 2008, as he was suspending his 2008 Presidential Campaign.

We have tried to vet Mitt Romney. There are the political masochists who watched all or most of the GOP Presidential Debates – all 20 of them. If the debates were challenging for the viewer, imagine what they must have been like for Mitt Romney. From May 5, 2011 to February 22, 2012, Mitt Romney pulled, twisted, turned, and stretched himself into so many different political positions that I wonder if he recognized himself. 

In the course of those debates, the only constant was his steady march to the right. Romney struggled to make the GOP believe that he is “severely conservative.” I suppose STAUNCHLY conservative wouldn’t have been enough. Even linguistically, Romney comes across as lacking authenticity and sincerity.

There was no amount of pandering that was too callow. Who can forget Romney pandering to the non-voting trees in Michigan as being just the right height? I know the folks in the South felt an instant kinship to Romney when he started referring to them as “y’all,” and telling them about his breakfast of “cheesy grits.”

During the primaries, there were certain groups who should have paid very close attention to what Mitt Romney said, or equally important – didn’t say. Seniors, women, Latinos, LGBT, public service employees, college students: you should have been listening to the various contradictory positions that Romney took on the issues of importance to you. Blacks, veterans, the poor, the sick and disabled, the middle class with a job, cities, alternative energy (e.g., wind and solar), etc. if you were marginalized or excluded from Mitt Romney’s political discussion, you will be totally excluded from a Romney Administration. You probably won’t even get a binder…

But the pandering couldn’t remove the taint of his previous remarks and his record. Or could it? A senior Romney advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, told us they would just shake and reset after the primaries, like an Etch-A-Sketch. Six months earlier, they telegraphed the desperate dash to the middle they were going to make in the first presidential debate, but all of us, President Obama included, were still unprepared when it came. But I am certain that the people of Massachusetts were not surprised at all.

The people of Massachusetts should know him best, right? He has lived there since he moved there to attend Harvard Law School and Business School. Bain Capital is headquartered there. Mitt Romney was governor of the state. With that much history in the state, you would think he would be way ahead in the polls in his home state. You would be wrong. According to the Real Clear Politics Average of Polls, President Obama is ahead of Mitt Romney by a staggering 16.3%.

Romney’s poll results are as bad as dating your best friend’s ex.

But for folks who aren’t from the Bay State, we must stop and ask why? The citizens of Massachusetts DID have the chance to vet Mitt Romney. They saw him in action. Was he able to create millions jobs? Did he mystically change the political culture of the capital? Did he turn water into wine? The short answer is no, not so much.

Governor Romney’s Bain Capital years… key evidence for his ability to turn-around failing circumstances – well, we have to take his word for it because many of those businesses either went bankrupt or they are privately-held, so we can’t see their books. We certainly haven’t been offered the opportunity to review the books of Bain Capital during the time that Mitt Romney was running the place.

We have only seen two years of tax returns. Why shouldn’t we trust what Mitt Romney has told us about his tax returns? He contorted himself into a convenient shape on this issue to help himself when he was running for governor. Once he won, we discovered that the information he gave the citizens of Massachusetts was false. By his own father’s standards, Mitt Romney has fallen short by his failure to produce multiple years of tax returns, which is sad and ironic since George Romney initiated the practice in 1967.

If you don’t know who Barack Obama is, love him or hate him, then you haven’t been paying attention. He told us more than we needed to know in the two books he wrote and published about himself BEFORE he became president. The President and First Lady continue to do an amazing job of raising well-adjusted, intelligent and poised young ladies in the white-hot glare of the fishbowl of the White House. But President Obama isn’t running to be Dr. Healthcliff Huxtable, a/k/a Bill Cosby, the office pursued is President of the United States.

The track record he has established in his first term is full of hits, but if we are honest, it has not been an unqualified success. I could take an entire blog just listing accomplishments achieved during the Obama Administration. But here is Pundit On Point Cliff Notes version: Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created; automobile industry revived; two women, including the first Latina, appointed to the US Supreme Court; after a century of effort, healthcare reform created; end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Iraq War ended; and the man responsible for 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was brought to justice.

There is so much more. Ask the Dream kids, senior citizens, students with federally guaranteed student loans, women who heard Barack Obama state “rape is rape,” and the LGBT community who heard our president say he supported marriage equality.

There is more work to be done on the economy. No one is saying otherwise. But President Obama has been steady. In fact, it has been this type of even-keeled leadership that has provoked endorsements from conservative and careful sources, such as the Salt Lake Tribune and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Governor Romney has tried to strike all of the poses, but he has only succeeded at looking cheerlessly ambitious, while leaving us questioning his motives and sincerity. Pro-Choice v. Anti-Choice. Varmit Hunter v. Gun Control. Misogynist v. Binder-holder. Neo-Con Hawk v. Peacenik Dove. Severely Conservative v. Moderate. All of this hypocrisy is trapped in one person.

If you are everywhere in your principles, then you will get nowhere. As all of our parents told us, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. We live in a time when the President of the United States must stand for more than their own ambition. Listen to the hint the people of Massachusetts are sending. The Romney Sutra, with its numerous, tortured, political positions, will not unite and elevate our nation.

Whether you agree or disagree is immaterial. The solution is simple – VOTE.

Dear President Obama:

I was raised to believe that it’s not nice to talk behind people’s backs, so I am bringing my concerns directly to you. When I say, with all due respect, I sincerely mean it. And so it is with all due respect that I must discuss Wednesday’s debate with you.

I have watched you with admiration since you delivered the Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. And while I have some policy concerns (e.g., the ongoing housing crisis, aspects of Wall Street reform, and the NDAA), I do believe that you are the best candidate for these times. The interests of the middle-class, the elderly, Generation X and Y, college students, veterans, women, immigrants, the LGBT community…well, 99% of the country are better served by the policies advanced by the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, many of our concerns weren’t discussed in the debate because Gov. Romney hijacked the debate with lies and talk about Big Bird. You can change that by making sure Gov. Romney is accountable for his past statements and explicit about his future policies.

However, Mr. President, you understand as well as anyone that politics has become as much about perceived style as it is about policy substance. Wednesday night, Sir, you were a policy wonk in the worst sense of the word. Wonks can often present policy in a manner that is dry and uninteresting, without regard for whether the audience is engaged or interested. You are known as “No Drama Obama.” Awesome, but no drama cannot be confused with no life or no preparation. Mr. President, on Wednesday night, you appeared both lifeless and unprepared. I don’t believe that the demands of the office have sapped you of your charm and star power. But it’s not me you need to convince.

What happened? Was last night a part of a larger strategy? Have you been watching Muhammad Ali fights? Do you want us all to recall that larger than life figure in American culture, is that why you hung back evoking images of Ali doing his classic “Rope-A-Dope?” Are you trying to make Romney the dope? It’s an interesting idea, but you run the risk of looking like a dope yourself since there is no margin for error as the clock winds down toward Election Day. Put up your dukes, Mr. President. If you are fighting for us, then fight.

Was it a legal strategy? Were you trying to offer testimony on the record so that you can impeach him and expose his perjury later? Oh, you were trying to give him enough rope to hang himself. But then why didn’t you immediately go back and point out the lies? President Obama, you know that in the 24-hour news cycle a lie repeated loud and often enough becomes the truth. It is your responsibility to make sure that the truth comes to light - not just for your sake, but for the sake of the American voter.

Mr. President, I do not understand how you could let Mitt Romney hit the American public with lie after lie, and then run from his own record. How could you let him lie about issues important to all of us, from taxes to Obamacare to Medicare to Dodd-Frank? There were so many lies that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would tell us that it’s so complicated that they couldn’t go into now…it was that many lies. But you let those lies go unchallenged.

Was it a lack of preparation or a lack of political bloodlust that caused you to be so polite? To quote Mitt Romney, “this ain’t bean bag.” Politics, like life, is a full contact sport. Sir, while you were factually correct, debates aren’t watched for facts, they are watched for style. The folks who think you lost the first debate believe this because they preferred Romney’s style, certainly not because his performance has held up to fact-checking.  Please be our prosecutor. On direct examination of Romney, insist on specifics, and when those details don’t make sense – CALL HIM ON IT! Democrats will love you for it, and Independents would respect you for it.

And as you prepare for the next debate, I encourage you to remember that Mitt Romney is taking great pains to make sure that he is prepared. Leave nothing to chance. Prepare, and then prepare some more. Don’t give talk of inadequate preparation any oxygen. And as we saw Wednesday night, you must be prepared for anything, ranging from poor moderation of the debate to Mitt Romney 75.0, yet another version of your opponent as he shakes the Etch-a-Sketch. Don’t let it escape America’s notice that Mitt flips, flops, flips, then does a double twisting back lay-out, and the truth is nowhere in the vicinity.

Whoever was responsible for prepping you for Wednesday night’s debate is guilty of political malpractice, which is a charge I normally level at the Romney campaign. Don’t allow it to become a habit that I can make such an assertion stick about your campaign.

Since discussions of the debate have been overwhelmed with sports metaphors, Sir, it’s time for you to get your game face on. You must treat the next two debates like Game 7 of the World Series or World Championship or the last quarter of the Super Bowl. It is now or never. So Mr. President, you have to leave it all out there on the floor.

And Mr. President, you seemed joyless and almost pained in parts. Have some fun in the dismantling of the deceitful mass of political contradictions that is the Romney/Ryan ticket. Please remember the one thing you have that Gov. Romney doesn’t…likeability. Most of America likes you, and no one likes a liar. Expose him for what he is.

After the debacle, everyone has 20/20 hindsight. We all are full of critique, disapproval and judgment about your performance. But after the debacle, you, Mr. President have begun to make lemonade out of the lemons on the campaign trail with a fire and crisp delivery that was absent on Wednesday. But most important, after the debacle, you can review and assess to make sure that you don’t have a repeat of the Denver Debate in your upcoming encounters with Gov. Romney. One thing is clear after the debacle; the biggest losers of the night were Jim Lehrer, the American voter and the TRUTH. You have two more chances to make it up to the American voter and the truth.

I hate debacles, but I love a good debate. Bring it! And please, next debate, look into the camera and speak directly to us. We’re listening.

Respectfully yours,

Pundit On Point

It was one of the most effective ads of the 2008 election cycle. The 3AM phone call… Who would you want to have answer the call about an unnamed international crisis occurring in some far-flung corner of the globe? Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain tried to make the case that Barack Obama wasn’t ready to answer the call.

They were wrong.

In 2012, with the body of Osama bin Laden at the bottom of the ocean, and several of his confederates only identifiable by DNA, if sheer terrorist body count alone is the marker, then Barack Obama has done a remarkable job. The president must do more than wage war; he must also fight for peace and diplomacy. There again the president is doing his best in a complicated and dangerous world.

It is why folks like J. Christopher Stevens and the three other diplomatic staff who lost their lives were so invaluable to the United States, Libya and the world.

But I understand, and I hope all of you do as well, that the responsibility of the president is extremely complex. As president, you are the steward of the nation. Like a shepherd, you must guide and encourage, but you are ultimately responsible for the well-being of the entire group, so you won’t sacrifice them for the sake of profit or your own vanity.

Yes, the president is the steward of the nation.

After September 11, 2001, we recognize the importance of having a wise, decisive steward of the nation who would act when told there is an imminent threat on American soil. But rehashing that aspect of American history is best left for another day. Today is about September 11, 2012, and the rash behavior of one man who wants to be President of the United States.

On September 11, 2012, as we remembered the fallen, and later as events unfolded in Libya and Egypt, another man displayed why he DOES have the temperament to continue to serve as the steward of our nation, while another man showed us that his overweening ambition and scant judgment leave him ill-equipped to serve as president.

You see, Mitt Romney has been trying to hold up his experience as a “Master of the Universe” as the key reason he should be president. But a “Master of the Universe” doesn’t care about the well-being of everyone, he only cares about himself. He assesses every opportunity to determine whether he can advance his own agenda…to score points and appear larger to the markets, the press, the stockholders – and to his own ego.. The truth and consequences are usually the first victims in the vainglorious campaign of a Master of the Universe.

If I was a “Master of the Universe,” I would demand that Mitt Romney turn in his membership card, keys to the clubhouse, and banish him forever,  Romney is making high powered business executives seems feckless, opportunistic, soulless, mean, dishonest, and shifty, which isn’t easy. We thought that kind of behavior of dominated by career politicians like Paul Ryan.

These men and women – Masters of the Universe – like to give off the appearance of talking first and thinking second, but they are very deliberate when it comes to money and the management of risk. It is with the human cost that things tend to fall apart. We saw it with Romney’s handling of the tragic events in Libya. He couldn’t keep politics out of it, even for a moment. Mr. Romney didn’t express respect for a career diplomat or concern for his family as a starting sentiment. No, instead, Mr. Romney smirked and sneered, as he tried to convince America that he understood foreign policy by displaying a lack of understanding of human interaction. Craven and opportunistic are words that keep coming to mind to describe Mr. Romney as a politician, especially after today.

The video that arguably sparked all of this trouble is stupid and worthless. What all of the folks, and Harvard Law School graduate Mitt Romney, should remember is that the First Amendment doesn’t provide for absolute and unrestricted free speech rights. Hate speech isn’t protected, nor is the equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theatre. Religious freedom is in the First Amendment, along with Freedom of Speech. So when some jerk makes a dumb, low-rent video that infringes on another group’s religious freedom, we all forget that religious freedom and respect should be afford to all Americans, not just Christians and Jews.

What was most striking was that Romney displays he forgot the Bill of Rights, because he was most interested in the potential opportunity to score political points rather than soothing the frayed nerves of a nation. He didn’t seem to realize with each word he said about President Obama, he made his opponent appear more presidential and his own candidacy seem less prepared to lead during times of crisis.

The situation in Libya and Egypt is delicate. On September 11, Romney prematurely released a statement WITHOUT THE FACTS. If you are a Master of the Universe, that is perfectly fine. If you are the steward of the nation, lives can be lost because of your bad judgment and impetuousness. Whatever points Mr. Romney thought he would gain were lost because we all saw his maneuver for what it was, a Master of the Universe who was out of his depths. It is disgusting to try to jump into a foreign affairs crisis for political gain. It is inexcusable to try to spin the loss of life from this crisis, which Romney didn’t seem to understand, for political gain.

Even when it was clear that he had spoken too soon and without the facts, while the situation was unfolding a Ambassador Stevens was still missing, Gov. Romney would not admit his mistake. Instead, he “doubled-down.” Again, this choice made him appear less presidential, not more so. Gov. Romney could have admitted the error of releasing his statement while the events were unfolding, expressed his deepest sympathies for the families of those who lost their lives, and pledged his support to President Obama during this time as we seek to bring the perpetrators of this vile act to justice. And then, he could wait because if President Obama rebuffed him, the President would have looked less than presidential. But as has been the case with Mitt Romney, this political wound was self-inflicted. But for the voter, it was quite revealing.

Mitt Romney has displayed how he would take the country back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration in foreign policy, but worse…The Romney Doctrine of foreign policy would be the Bush Doctrine on Meth. At least George W. Bush had a father who could counsel caution and moderation on the world stage.

After over a decade of war, it is time for America to move away from guns and towards butter. Romney is an uninformed Master of the Universe who should go back to the realm where his attitude and approach can win the day – Wall Street and private equity. I would rather let Romney play in that murky pool where, although his haphazard ways have consequences, he wouldn’t get Americans killed.

Masters of the Universe operate from hubris and self-interest. A steward of the nation operates with determination and concern for the collective. We need a man who will worry about the collective.  Last week, Mr. Romney showed us that he isn’t that man. Let Romney have his universe. Give President Obama the nation.