We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the White House.
In endorsing President Obama for another term in the White House, the San Antonio Express-News points to the President’s record in stabilizing a the cratering economy he inherited from George W. Bush, his leadership in the international sphere, his efforts to create a “better, fairer society.”
On the economy:
Obama took office four years ago amid a meltdown of the nation’s financial, housing and labor markets. He acted swiftly to continue and enhance what had been bipartisan measures to stabilize those markets. He also took new steps to tighten regulations on banks, create a floor under the rising number of home foreclosures and stanch the loss of up to 800,000 jobs per month while also rescuing the U.S. auto industry.
The results: a stock market that has risen more than 60 percent since Obama took office, housing starts in September up 38 percent from one year ago and 31 consecutive months of job growth.
On foreign affairs:
In the international sphere, Obama completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq last year and has established a timetable for an American exit from Afghanistan in 2014. Building on programs developed under the last administration, Obama has directed attacks that have severely weakened the leadership of al-Qaida, including the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.
On social issues:
…President Obama has taken initiatives to create a better, fairer society. He ended the deportation of young immigrants who, through no fault of their own, were brought to this country illegally as children. He ended the ban on gays serving openly in the military. And he pushed through the Affordable Care Act that will extend health care coverage to 30 million Americans who, shamefully in this day and age, still lack access to decent medical care.
Like many newspaper endorsements in 2012, this one also notes the President’s accomplishment gaps, while blaming much of the lack of progress on “the breakdown of bipartisan relations in Washington.” It urges him, in a second term, to do more on immigration reform, and on long-term economic and national security threats to America.
But those shortcomings, adds the newspaper’s editorial page writers, “don’t justify a change in leadership, particularly when many of Mitt Romney’s proposals–such as an across-the-board 20 percent cut in taxes and the elimination of unspecified itemized deductions–invite skepticism.
The editorial also strongly criticizes Romney for:
…his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act without offering any meaningful replacement. In addition, the video of him behind closed doors dismissing 47 percent of the population as government-dependent slackers was disheartening and possibly disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency.
No candidate has all the right policies — that includes Barack Obama. But having weathered the challenges of the last four years, we believe he is in a better position to guide the nation over the next four years — and has earned from voters the privilege to do so.