The Average Joe

On November 6 th , 2012, President Barack Obama defeated former Governor Mitt Romney by a decent sized margin.  Many political pundits on the right were baffled as to how Mitt Romney could have lost, especially with the economy recovering so slowly, as some Americans feel.   The answer to that comes in two parts. Aside from Mitt Romney being a bad candidate, it is also due to the Republican Party being so out of touch with mainstream America. Mitt Romney has taken numerous positions on some very controversial topics.  One day he was pro-choice and the following day he was pro-life.  He was a believer in climate change, then he flip flopped and was no longer a believer in it.  These flip flops would continue to grow across other hot topics that would lead voters to question who he really was and what he believed in. His economic policy almost mirrored what Paul Ryan had proposed earlier this year.  It was highly unpopular amongst Americans and would bring this countr

We saw a lot of mudslinging last night between VP Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan.  Let’s review some of the key comments made during the debate and determine fact from fiction. From the Washington Post : “We weren’t told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security.” — Biden, speaking of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya Biden’s bold statement was directly contradicted by State Department officials just this week, in testimony before a congressional panel and in unclassified cables released by a congressional committee . “All of us at post were in sync that we wanted these resources,” said Eric Nordstrom, the top regional security officer in Libya earlier this year. A Utah national guardsman who led a security team, Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, said: “We felt great frustration that those requests were ignored or just never met.” Maybe Biden was too busy in debate prep to watch? “The congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $30

In looking back at the first debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama, it appeared that Mitt Romney came out much stronger, while the President looked very fuzzy in delivering his statements.  Historically speaking, debates do not always make or break an election for candidates.  If we look through the election history of the United States, not every candidate that has dominated the debates went on to win the election.  Regardless of which candidate “won” this first debate, it is more important to determine fact from fiction between what both candidates said. From The Washington Post : “Governor Romney’s central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut — on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts — that’s another trillion dollars” — President Obama “I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut” — Governor Romney How can both facts be true? The $5 trillion figure comes from the fact that Romney has proposed to cut tax rates by 20 percent and eliminate the

On Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Libyan militants launched an assault on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya .  The result of this attack led to the death of the U.S. Ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and 3 other Americans at the consulate.  This attack was horrendous and entirely uncalled for, but the comments made by Mitt Romney made it even worse. A nation comes together in a time of crisis and puts politics aside.  This was not the case for the Romney campaign .  Just after the attack took place, Mitt Romney issued a statement. “It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks”. This statement is both unfair and untrue.  The White House issued no such statement sympathizing with the militants that waged the attack.  It was the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that issued the following statement, “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt

One thing I will give Paul Ryan is the fact that he was able to get his name in the news a few months back when proposing his budget plan, which went nowhere, as it is the same nonsense that is spouted off by most Republicans of the party today. If we take a look at his plan for Medicare, which he is choosing to gut, he would prefer to hand out vouchers to those that would be collecting it and shop around for low cost healthcare.  Ryan’s hope would be that competition lowers the costs and makes it affordable for seniors.  Basically, this would be the same concept of senior citizens and sick people shopping around for the best bargain on a new car with service plan.  Overall, 40-50 million people will no longer be insured if his plan is enacted. It is also important to point out that Paul Ryan voted in favor of the Medicare expansion is 2003.  Since Paul Ryan has flip-flopped on Medicare; Mitt Romney, the original flip-flopper, must be proud. In my opinion, we should l

As the Iraq War has just ended and the War in Afghanistan is now winding down, most Americans are under the false impression of this nation beginning its "war on terror", as President George W. Bush coined the phrase, since the dawn of the 21 st Century and this is just not true.  The United States has been fighting terrorism since shortly after its independence.  Compared to the rest of the world, the United States is still very young.  This nation was born into a very hostile world ruled by monarchies that did not wish this new democracy well.  At the time of its birth, there was an unexpected problem that the new American leaders were unsure as to how to confront, which was known as piracy.  This piracy was nothing more than state sponsored terrorism of its day.  In this case, it existed in the Mediterranean Sea along the North African Coast. As a result of this, the fledgling United States was considered an easy target due to the lack of protection for it

If you have all been keeping up with the news, it is impossible to not see the headlines dealing with the healthcare battle in the Supreme Court of the United States.   The main argument in this case is whether or not the federal government can mandate all Americans to purchase healthcare insurance if they do not already have it.   The individual mandate, which originated as a Republican idea, would require that all Americans purchase minimum health care coverage starting in 2014, as stated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.            Donald Verrilli Jr., speaking at the Supreme Court in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare; argued that this law is a valid response to a crisis in the market of health care.   The individual mandate regulates how people are going to pay for healthcare services, which is and always will be a universal need.   It is also important to keep in mind that as a result of this health law, thos