Cheaters Never Win

"Cheaters never win." At least that's how the old axiom goes. We shall see whether there is any truth to this old phrase when the polls close tonight on the 2012 US Presidential Election. The choice is between President Barack Obama (D) and former Governor Mitt Romney (R).

In a 2010 case between Citizens United and the Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court held (5-4) that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. The result in this election cycle has been that these so-called Super PACs (political action committees) have been able to receive large amounts of money from anonymous affluent individuals attempting to sway the election. (There are limits on how much individuals can give to a particular candidate, but this ruling allowed persons friendly to the campaigns to formally leave the campaign, set up a Super PAC and receive insanely huge amounts of money from a few people without having to disclose their names.)

That ruling has provided a major advantage to the pro large business Governor Romney. Let's face it: the overwhelming majority of the U.S. Electorate is not paying very close attention to the impact this decision has had upon the ads they have seen in this election cycle. (A whole lot of voters will make their decision based largely upon TV ads. Fewer and fewer Americans informing their choices by reading newspapers, weekly news magazines and watching Public Television.)

The Supreme Court's decision has radically altered the rules of this game, if you please. In the past, if you saw an attack ad of the Republican candidate followed by an counter ad of a Democratic candidate, you knew that those ads were funded by a relatively equal number of persons respectively aligned with the political philosophies of the opposing parties. The country is almost half and half. And the number of people financially supporting those candidates was almost half and half.

Not so anymore. This year we have witnessed a very small group of insanely wealthy individuals who have a vested interest in seeing Barack Obama defeated and Mitt Romney in the White House. President Obama has not held his hand about his policies moving forward. He has vowed to tax them more. Many of these Romney friendly Super PACs have purchased television spots and run them (officially) independent of the Romney campaign. It really has compromised the process this election cycle.

Despite the monkey wrench thrown into this election, I really hope that Mr. Romney is defeated. The man is beyond misleading; he is just not an honest man. He has made vague and unsubstantiated claims time and again. Governor Romney claims he'll create 12 million jobs. (Folks, that's 250,000 jobs a month! That only happened under two presidential administrations in the history of the US! Mind you, the economy has changed significantly since those two administrations. When Reagan was president we still had large steele and manufacturing industries. When Clinton was president we had the tech and dot com boom. Neither of those realities exists today. We are still in the wake of the financial meltdown caused by the mortgage crisis of 2008.)

Further, Mr. Romney says that he has a history of creating jobs without explaining that his path to job creation almost always followed job decimation. The fact is that when he bought companies many people lost their jobs. Then he turned those companies into "leaner" companies that began to hire again. Mr. Romney never includes the former reality (that folk got fired when he came onto the scene) in his claims.

Governor Romney told a room of the real people he's going to be looking out for if he becomes president that he's not worried about 47% of America. And look at how long it took him to back off that statement EVEN AFTER BEING EXPOSED. Why did it take him so long to back off? The answer is that HE MEANT WHAT HE SAID! And that statement goes further to steer me away from him because it reveals something about is character. He mad that statement thinking that most of America would never hear it. That reveals a lack of integrity. It's two faced. It's the modus operandi of a liar and a cheat.

We could talk about his offshore accounts, his hesitation to release tax returns, the crazy ideas of his running mate Congressman Paul Ryan, but I'll stop here and tell you, use your brain when walking into the booth. President Obama is not perfect. Folks, we only have two choices. And while imperfect, he has done a lot for this country that was in crisis when he walked into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I believe we need to keep moving forward with a man who loves his family and has demonstrated a love for ALL the people of this country.

As far as I'm concerned, Governor Romney is a liar and a cheater. And I'm hoping and praying that the old axiom is true that "Cheaters never win." Guess what? You can help it to be true if you'll go vote. Go vote. I'm about to!

KSGsr
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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