Reason #42: Aloha

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #42

As everybody knows — Donald Trump notwithstanding — the president was born in the United States. He has a remarkable story, but not only is he the first African American elected president, he's also the first citizen from Hawai'i to become president. Our country — our contentious, polarized nation — can use a little bit of Aloha.

Link: "Obama’s Hawaiian state of mind"

Reason #43: Obama is Steady, Determined, and Deliberate

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #43

There are plenty of quantitative policy reasons to vote for the president's reelection, but Obama also possesses a particular qualitative attribute which make him a great leader: his calm collected focus. Whether its his leadership in the pursuit of bin Laden, or his shepherding of the Affordable Care Act through congress, he has demonstrated himself as a leader who deserves our trust.

THE REAL ROMNEY

(Cross-posted from The Buddha Diaries)

I can't help myself.  The Buddhist in me tells I should be equanimous, but I woke angry in the middle of the night and, breathe as I might, I have not been able to dispel the anger.  

The pundits were telling us, before last night's Great Debate--as they had billed it: the most important political event in living memory, if not in the entire history of the country, perhaps the world!--they were assuring us that such occasions reveal the real man.  In Romney's case, that proved disastrously true.  And the real Romney turned out to be a steroid version of the same man we have been watching all along: a man so desperate for the power of the presidential office that he will do anything, say anything to achieve that end.

They had rebooted him in aggressive mode for the debate.  We in the television audience were subjected to his (pace, Buddha!) oily smile and self-righteously confident harangue for what seemed like a great deal more than his time share.  We have become familiar with his eagerness to backtrack on any previous action, position or policy proposal to suit his present purpose, and last night was no exception.  He dodged and ducked expertly, loudly and glibly disavowing much of what he has embraced publicly in the the course of years of campaigning, denying that his words meant what he once said they did, affecting new positions to compensate for those that had provoked justified public outrage.  He transformed himself, with a heavy dose of rhetoric, into a middle-class loving, poor-embracing, deficit-cutting magician, able with a turn of phrase to reduce taxes for everyone, increase military spending, and at the same time avoid cuts in anything, it seemed, but funding for Jim Lehrer and Big Bird.

Republican pundits may gloat over his overbearing performance and promote it as a demonstration of "strength" and "leadership."  I saw a man exposing an inner character that lacks both pity or remorse, a man whose ruthlessness knows no bounds--but who cloaks that harsh inner being in unctuous expressions of empathy.  I call his performance the most breathtaking, hectoring display of political mendacity I can remember, and can only hope that the American electorate will not be fooled by the deceptions, distortions and outright lies with which we were bombarded last night.  And yes, I'm angry.

Reason #44: Obama Knows that Wealth is Created by Shared Efforts

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #44

The notion that wealth "trickles down" is widely debunked. Yet, we hear the same theory again and again as an excuse for giving the most fortunate among us advantages which the majority do not enjoy. The differences between Gov. Romney and President Obama couldn't be more clear when it comes to this basic moral framework — Obama believes that our wealth and success as a nation is measured and created by opportunity and success for all people of all means, whereas Romney would hold that the work of the majority is there to fuel the success of the few.

Reason #45: Obama supports equal access to higher education

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #45

Republicans are fond of labeling Obama, and liberals in general, as "arrogant" and "elitest." Our country's academics and university faculty come under particular criticism from the right, despite the fact that our much of our country's intellectual property is invented and developed through academic instituions. This notion that higher education is somehow an arrogant pursuit, rather than a vehicle for personal betterment and societal advance, was crystalized in Rick Santorum's claim that Obama was a "snob" for supporting the notion that higher eduction should be accessible (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/03/news/la-pn-santorum-college-remarks-20120303).

While the GOP would look at higher education as a privilege, Obama has worked to make education more accessible, by expanding the Pell Grants program, giving more low income students the opportunity to go to college, signing the GI Bill 2.0, and shoring up student loan programs, making it easier for students to refinance and qualify for student aid.

Reason #46: Obama halted the XL pipeline

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #46

While the future of the XL Pipeline remains uncertain, it's clear that if Mitt Romney is elected, that the pipeline will get fast-tracked. The only hope that environmental groups have in convincing an administration that this is the wrong direction for solving our energy challenges is to elect a president who takes the needs of the environment into consideration when formulating energy policy.

Reason #47: Obama Stands Against the Definition of Corporations as People

50 Days, 50 Reasons to Vote Obama — Reason #47

We've already seen the damage that Citizens United has begun to inflict on our country — unchecked and undisclosed corporate donations have created a flood of Super-PAC-created "free speech," which does nothing but buoy the interests of corporations against the public good, and drown out the ability of (actual, living, breathing) people to have their voice heard.

President Obama stands firmly in support of the reversal of Citizens United, either through new litigation or a Constitutional amendment:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/barack-obama-citizens-united-ruling