2016 Postmortem

flamingdem

(39,313 posts) Sun Oct 28, 2012, 02:28 PM Oct 2012

Portsmouth Herald New Hamshire endorsement: President Obama has earned our trust, support

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20121028-OPINION-210280320

October 28, 2012 2:00 AM

In his first four years in office, President Barack Obama has pulled the country back from financial collapse, improved health care, championed civil rights for women, immigrants and same-sex couples, cut taxes, ended the war in Iraq and kept us on track to leave Afghanistan by 2014.

He approved the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

He has kept America safe during his first four years in office.

For these reasons, and many more that we will enumerate below, we urge our readers to vote for President Obama on Nov. 6.

When you cut through the Republicans' untruths, half-truths and downright lies, it becomes clear that President Obama has helped the American people in his first term despite an opposition party whose stated purpose was his destruction. Despite the Republicans' best efforts to tarnish him, the president remains well liked by the majority of Americans, while Congress has never been more reviled. Most Americans know in their guts that the president is on the side of working men and women. While the past four years have turned his hair gray, the president has kept his cool, has refused to be provoked and still truly believes America works best when we are united in a common cause.

Let's start with the economy. Please take a minute and remember how bleak things were when the president took office on Jan. 20, 2009.

On Sept. 29, 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its biggest point drop ever when Congress refused to act despite the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the housing market and related mortgage-backed securities. On this single day, $1.2 trillion in national wealth evaporated. On Oct. 14, 2008, President Bush announced the bank bailout and the next day the stock market dropped another 733 points. On Dec. 1, the Dow dropped another 680 points as the National Bureau of Economic Research announced the United States was in recession.

Since the president took office, the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 70 percent. "Not since Dwight Eisenhower's first term has a president had such a strong run for their first term," Reuters reported in August. Those who don't own stocks are also more confident about the economy. The consumer confidence index has nearly doubled during Obama's first term.

For those who prefer gut feelings to statistics, think about what was happening all around you in January 2009. If you were lucky enough to keep your job, you felt insecure about it as friends and family were being laid off. Our home values were crashing, our economic security blanket pulled out from under us. It was a dark time that will shape our psyches for years to come. Do you have that same fear in your gut today?

At 7.8 percent, the national unemployment rate is too high and the president is the first to acknowledge it. But jobs are trending in the right direction. We've had 31 straight months of positive job growth in the country, adding 4.6 million private sector jobs. In the last year of George Bush's presidency, we lost 4.4 million private-sector jobs. And let's remember, New Hampshire's unemployment rate is far lower than the nation's at 5.7 percent, while Maine is slightly lower, at 7.6 percent.