“I’m Mitarack Obamney, and I approve of this message.” But
what message is being approved of? A
closer examination reveals that both candidates are much more alike than
different. Both nominees are pragmatists
and moderate candidates from the left and the right. President Obama, despite right-wing pundits
labeling him as a Marxist-socialist – has taken a moderate stance on the issue
of free trade, opting to take a page from the Clinton playbook by signing trade
agreements with countries like South Korea, Columbia, and Panama. The president has also taken a stronger
approach to national security, hunting and killing Osama Bin Laden, affiliates
of al-Qaeda, and is even willing to target American citizens through drone
strikes if suspected of collaborating with enemies of the state. This has forced the staunchest Republicans to
applaud his efforts. Mitt Romney, on the
other hand, was the most moderate candidate who ran in this year’s entertaining
Republican primary and managed to beat (or outspend) his more conservative
challengers. While he played to the Republican base as a true conservative,
Romney’s moderate stances on economic and social issues, not to mention being
the governor of ‘blue-state’ Massachusetts, also explained why conservative voters
pegged him as the second most palatable flavor throughout the primary election opting
towards more conservative candidates like Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, and
Santorum until the lack of funds and poor organization forced these candidates
out of the race.
Since both men are essentially middle-of-the-road
candidates, this general election campaign will focus more on independent
voters than with energizing an unenthusiastic base albeit both candidates will
still attempt to appeal to them. Obama’s
recent coming out in support of marriage equality may or may not have been
driven by conviction (we will never know) but did score him tremendous
political points by infusing millions of dollars into his campaign coffers from
an under-tapped LGBT community and powerful Hollywood allies, i.e. George
Clooney and friends. Romney’s appeal as
being a genuine conservative backfired when onetime campaign advisor Eric Fehrnstrom made the infamous “Etch
A Skecth” gaffe that argued that Romney is able to re-invent himself and change
his positions on key issues as they entered into the general elections. This author believes that both candidates
will not be able to muster strong support from their bases. Obama will have difficulty to recapture the
same excitement and momentum from 2008 because he is forced to defend his record
and Romney will be challenged to rally his conservative base, those who view
him as not conservative enough and those evangelical Christians who may view
him negatively because of his Mormon faith.
Regardless of whether or not both bases become energized this campaign
season, the reality is that the war will be won in who can cater to independent
voters particularly in battleground states like Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin,
North Carolina, and Florida.
Every election for the second term is always a referendum on
the incumbent president’s first term. Thus,
independents, when deciding who to vote for should not just consider President
Obama’s record but to also ask the question, “What would Romney have done in
that situation?” This author believes
that Romney would have taken similar action to the major policy decisions Obama
made from the past four years.
The Great Recession
Would Romney have passed economic stimulus in 2009 when the
country was experiencing an economic freefall losing an average of six-hundred
thousand jobs per month? Of course, he
would. No sitting president would stand
idly by as the economy falls into shambles.
A policy of doing nothing isn’t policy at all and could be seen as a sign
of weak leadership. If President George
W. Bush’s economic policies in his lame duck years were to give an indication
of what Romney would have done, it would have been towards preventing the banks
from collapsing while injecting economic stimulus. Why?
Recall that the financial crisis occurred due to market failure (a
bubble created from a bloated housing market) because of laisez faire policies
and deregulation. To cure the financial contagion
would not have been to lessen regulation and allow the market to fix itself, as
Republicans would have preferred, but to do the opposite, to increase
government intervention to reign in Wall Street. I’m sorry, but private equity firms like Romney’s
Bain Capital, if given the choice, would not suggest that Wall Street simply
restructure itself and fail, understanding full-well the economic repercussion:
the entire U.S. and global economy’s demise.
Don’t believe me? Just ask former
Secretary of the Treasurer and former Goldman Sachs executive, Henry Paulson
the next best option.
Health Care
Would Romney have aggressively pushed healthcare like Obama
in 2009-10 - probably not, but would Romney have supported it if he sat in Oval
Office? Yes, he would if his
Massachusetts’ health care plan was an indication. In fact, Obamacare’s national provisions are
far more moderate than the one Romney signed into law in Massachusetts. Despite Mitt’s attempts to distance himself
from Obamacare – asserting federalism as a justification stating that he would
have never proposed the same model on the national level is disingenuous – and
calling for its repeal to satisfy the Tea Party is no doubt political.
The Auto Bail-Out
Would Romney have bailed out the auto industry? While Romney wrote an op-ed that argued that
he wouldn’t have bailed out General Motors in The Detroit News, in hindsight this was a political tactic to
differentiate him from the president and to show that he would have done things
differently. However, if he were sitting
in the Oval Office presented with the same proposition, I suspect he would have
done what Obama did since it would have affected his home state of
Michigan. If faced to make a decision to
save thousands of US jobs, Romney would no doubt follow in the same footsteps. To let GM fail would be political poison.
While the campaigns will do everything to differentiate the
candidates, define the other as more different or not in touch with the
American people, remember that both candidates are likely to take the same
policy positions on the major issues, despite the common
philosophical-ideological-political differences both candidates hold. In the end, America’s choice this November is
really not one of apples and oranges but really just two different types of
apples.