By Joe Citizen
On November 4, 2008, the American voters went to the polls to elect the President of the United States. Every 4 years, we hear the same story. This was to be the most important election of our lifetime. We usually just brush this off as political spin, but this year seemed to be very different. We faced very troubling times both at home and abroad.
Every Presidential election you can count on about 35-40% of the American people to vote for the Democratic candidate and about 35-40% to vote for the Republican candidate. It would not matter who were the candidates. The Democrats could run Mickey Mouse and the Republicans could run Daffy Duck. It is the 20-30% of the swing and independent voters who decide the election.
This year was no different. It would be very hard changing the minds of the die-hard Democrats or Republicans. We knew the outcome of the election was in our hands - the American voter that will cross party lines to elect the most qualified candidate who possesses integrity, experience, character and good judgment to lead our nation.
We had to decide between two very different candidates. Barack Obama, the Democrat, was a young, inexperienced African-American candidate who had done very little in his short career in the United States Senate. However, he was a political phenomenon of rare magnitude. His speeches inspired millions with expectations of "hope and change." John McCain, the Republican, was an old, experience candidate who had served his nation with dignity both in the military and in Congress for over 30 years. He lacked the charisma that his opponent had and seemed out of touch with the new and younger voters. We were torn between a young, inspirational candidate with new ideas and one that seemed to promise more of the same.
Some of us remembered when we elected Jimmy Carter in 1976. He was a candidate with very little experience. It was four years of high taxes, high interest rates, high inflation, a gas crisis, and a terrible foreign policy record. Did we want to repeat that mistake? However, many of us were unhappy with President Bush. We were tired of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The economy in 2008 was heading into a recession and we were ready for a change. We blamed Bush for the economy, but we seemed to have a short memory. The first 6 years of Bush's administration the economy was fine, despite suffering the nation's worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. This hurt our economy temporarily, but with the help of Bush and the Republican congress it recovered to levels before the attack. In November 2006 we voted in a Democratic congress. Americans voted for change in 2006, and we got it! Consumer confidence plummeted, gas prices soared, unemployment rose, retirement investments took a big hit, and we began to face a national financial crisis. Who did the voters blame? They blamed Bush and the Republican Party.
Barack Obama was elected and we headed into a new year anticipating a new beginning. What we got is not what we expected. It appears the American people were fooled. He has not been the moderate President as he portrayed himself in his campaign. Over half of the American people disapprove of the healthcare legislation he rammed through Congress. His economic stimulus package has not improved the economy and unemployment has risen to about 9%. Now gas prices are at an all-time high with no relief in sight. In over two years his approval rating has dropped dramatically. Most political polls show that only 44-46% of Americans think he deserves to be reelected in 2012. Most polls also show that over 60% think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
A familiar American phrase is "Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us." History has shown us that a good country fixes her mistakes, but a great country learns from them. We started by returning control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans in 2010. We need to continue the job by giving the Senate to the Republicans and voting out Barack Obama in 2012. If not - our taxes will rise, unemployment will not improve, gas prices will rise even higher and our overall way of life will continue to decline. Hopefully, we will not be fooled again!
See more of Joe Citizen here............ http://joecitizen.hubpages.com/hub/Fool-Us-Once-Shame-on-you-Fool-us-again-shame-on-us
This needs to be read by every independent thinking American. Will you be fooled again?
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