Mitt Romney cannot Defeat President Obama

April 7, 2012

By Saeed Qureshi

Predictably, the Republican presidential contender, Mitt Romney cannot defeat the incumbent president Barack Obama in the forthcoming November elections. The foremost reason for this projection is that the Christians of all denominations most notably the orthodox and ultra right conservatives would not want a Mormon otherwise deemed heretic, to preside over the United States.

The Mormon faith too is fragmented into various sub sects, and there are Mormon denominations that might also oppose Romney.
Notwithstanding the constitutional caveat granting religious freedom to all brands of religions and sects and banning bigotry; the ground realties markedly present a different scenario.

The United States is essentially a Christian state where the majority of the population professes and practices Christian faith. As such, from G.W, Bush era onwards, thousands of new churches and Cathedrals have been built. On Sundays the churches and monasteries remain full of attendees who generously give away donations and charities
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Granting that the common Christian faithful may not know nor would care about the religious background and inclination of Mitt Romney, yet the powerful conservative Christian groups and Roman Catholic sections and even individuals including priests, cardinals, and pastors would resist and oppose the advent of a Mormon to lord over the Christian population. This sentiment or bias may not be manifest daringly, yet one can imagine it is happening in the wake of the vigorous resurgence of Christianity in the United States.

Mitt Romney hailing from a strong and well entrenched political background is still a not a very well known or acknowledged politician in the Republican Party like Gingrich, or Ron Paul. The religious zeal and unflinching conservatism of another candidate Rick Santorum brought him initial victories in some primaries and unprecedented and fabulous financial support from the conservative wealthy republicans. He is almost neck and neck with Mitt Romney for Republican nomination.

Rick has lagged behind in the race for final selection because of his other disqualifications such as his amateurish views about overhauling the taxation regime, streamlining the foreign policy domain, winding up of wars, ensuring safety nuts such as Medicare, and similar issues with a far reaching broad based reform package. His being a conservative religious hawk turned out to be more of a liability than as asset for him.

Mitt Romney is depending and asserting his acumen and experience in economic management and corresponding economic reforms mostly riveted on tax reform and budget making. However, president Obama has already established his ability and competence to stem the voluminous economic rot and stimulating the debt-ridden economy that, in fact was, a spillover from his predecessor.

Despite its flaws, his healthcare reform plan has been like a divine blessing for the countless common and ordinary Americans who could not pay for their medical bills either due to poverty or the refusal of the health insurance companies to pay beyond a certain limit. President Barack Obama is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel peace prize a rare honor, bestowed on him besides only on three other American presidents.

In his tenure which is to end by January 2013, president Obama has several meritorious achievements that are certainly laudable keeping in view his little or no experience in governance. He has been able to achieve many milestones of accomplishments despite a bias againt him of being a non-white president and also being young. He has been thoroughly above personal rancor and kept his political stature beyond aspersions or involvement in blame game.

He signed economic stimulus package in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for stimulating that certainly jacked up the stagnant and the ailing American economy. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 are other landmark reforms that were also helpful in boosting the flagging economic sector of the United States.

Beside, a host of such laws and acts were passed and promulgated that were really like injecting a new life blood into the veins of the mauled socio-economic structure of the United States. These watershed initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, “Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010” and the Budget Control Act of 2011.

On the external fronts he wound up the war in Iraq, as well as a scheduled drawing down of American troops from Afghanistan by 2014.His administration singed the New START arms control treaty with Russia and rescued Libya from the despotic regime of Col Qaddafi . His administration’s hunting down Osama bin Laden and killing him in May 2011 is no mean achievement from the American national security perspective.

He does not brag, is down to earth, does not vindictively retaliate, talks about issues, and is an intellectual and a visionary. He is one of the highly educated presidents of the United State. Obama has not faltered nor purposely did anything as to invite pointing fingers at him.

Obama’s role as the president of the United State has been markedly successful, smooth, plausible and not as thorny and whims-driven as that of his predecessor GW Bush: the architect of the ruination of American robust economy and slandering this great country’s fair reputation by launching unprovoked attack on Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama has been mostly busy in righting the colossal wrongs wrought by his unscrupulous predecessor.

Mitt Romney is also a pleasant looking, jolly good person but he does not stand as tall with Obama in either intellectual caliber or in veritable achievements for the American people in such a short time despite the ground situation being so messy when he took over.

While the American presidential elections are far for a few months, the gossips are reverberating that Romney is banking upon the support of the chairman of the House Budget Committee Representative Paul D. Ryan who prepared the Republican House budget. Merely to claim that he was successful businessman and would straighten the American economy is a puerile argument to win the popular vote.

Romney’s budget that dwells upon the deep cuts in cherished social programs to a Medicare overhaul, could drive up costs for future retirees and fundamentally change the popular health plan. Moreover, it would “cut taxes sharply for the wealthy; gut public education, medical research, and other government programs; and increase the burden on the elderly to pay for their own health care”.

This budget is neither realistic nor its overall tenor is in the public interests.
Obama’s reforms to refurbish American dwindling economy far exceed the Ryan’s budget reform in their positive impact with regards to improvement of economy, creation of jobs and providing relief to the downtrodden in the society. Already the job situation is improving and less and less people are claiming unemployment allowances.

The American people are quite conscientious as to weigh the pros and cons of both the sides and vote for the better one. They would not prefer to choose an unpredictable head of state who looks raw and offers an agenda with half baked recipes, that that may not come up to the expectations of the suffering sections of the American society. Obama’s achievements outweigh his drawbacks and pitfalls if any, and therefore, he should be the strong candidate to return to the American presidency for the second term.