Chameleon Romney

As our Presidential election nears, it becomes increasingly clear that we will be inviting Barack Obama back into our living rooms through 2016.  Mitt Romney is not only a deeply flawed candidate but he cowers and capitulates to a Republican party that has evolved into radicalism.

Given his chameleon-like ability to project onto his audience what he presumes they wish to hear, any credibility he once enjoyed has all but vanished.  Mr. Romney unabashedly adorns a secretive cloak of mystery, to which he feels his status gives him title.  A book he authored called “No Apologies” speaks to that arrogance.  He stubbornly ignores ongoing appeals to do what every presidential candidate has done over the past number of decades; release several years of tax returns.  Many of these cries come from his own party.

Mr. Romney has released only two years of returns, both of which were skillfully crafted after he knew of his presidential ambitions.  In his 2011 returns, he reverse engineered his shameful 14.1% federal income tax rate as a ruse in an attempt to fool the American public.  This was done by not claiming more than $2 million in legitimate tax deductible donations, presumably to his church. His actual tax rate is closer to 10%.  It is almost certain that he will recoup this short-term loan to the IRS by amending his return in 2013, albeit delayed for political trickery.

On the other hand, Mr. Obama has his own set of problems, beginning with an economy that continues to struggle.  He is tasked with having to balance politics, policy and his campaign while at the same time leading our nation.  In actuality, our President has performed remarkably well under the conditions he inherited.

He helped prevent a global depression by making certain that a sufficient amount of stimulus was injected into our free market system.  Moreover, he saved our auto industry by assigning federal funds to serve as a bridge loan to GM and Chrysler until they became financially stable.  As a nation of diminishing production, we could have ill afforded to lose our automakers!

Let us not forget where our 401Ks and IRAs were nearly 4 years ago.  The stock market has doubled in value since the start of the great recession.  Imagine how viscous the attacks from the right would be if the Dow Jones hadn't recovered.

Mr. Obama also deserves credit for enacting health care reform, which is already saving lives and protecting assets when catastrophic illness occurs.  He accomplished all of these feats with little public support, and hostile obstruction from the radical right.

Perhaps I am overly confident in thinking that Paul Ryan will return to congress this fall, while Mitt Romney slithers into obscurity as most chameleons do. Nevertheless, the outcome of this election is far from certain.  It would behoove us all to turn out on election day to cast our votes, that is if you have proper ID!