On Wednesday, both the President and Mr. Romney spoke in length about the presidential election that took place a week before. But the style of the two men and the things they had to say showed the vast contrast between them, as one extended an invitation to the other to move the country forward, while the other man continued in divisive politics guaranteed to divide this country along racial and social lines.
Can you guess who would like that division? If you said Mitt Romney, you’d be correct.
In his first press conference since winning reelection, President Obama was asked whether he had followed up on a statement he made in his victory speech about inviting Mitt Romney and finding a way to work together. The President replied that he was giving Romney some time to come to terms with the outcome of the election, but would make that invitation in the future.
The President;
“I do think he did a terrific job running the Olympics, and that skill set of trying to figure out how do we make something work better applies to the federal government.
There are a lot of ideas that I don’t think are partisan ideas but are just smart ideas about how can we make the federal government more customer friendly. How can we make sure that we’re consolidating programs that are duplicative; how can we eliminate additional waste. He presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that I actually agree with. So it would be interesting to talk to him about something like that. There may be ideas that he has with respect to jobs and growth that can help middle-class families that I want to hear. So I’m not either prejudging what he’s interested in doing, nor am I suggesting I’ve got some specific assignment. But what I want to do is to get ideas from him and see if there are some ways that we can potentially work together.”
But around the same time that Mr. Obama was promising to work with the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney was busy with a conference call of his own. Speaking to his donors, Romney continued the same politics of division his campaign embraced in the final weeks of his run for president. Explaining why he lost the election, Romney attempted to remove himself and his failed ideas from the equation and credited “gifts” from the Obama administration to certain ethnic and socioeconomic groups as the reason for his loss.
Mr. Romney:
“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.
You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity — I mean, this is huge. Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”
Of course, if Mitt Romney had won the election, getting rid of healthcare would have been his number one priority – he said it numerous times in his campaign. And when it came to women and their healthcare decisions, Romney was/is in favor of inserting the Government in the middle of those private decisions a women make about her own life. It was also no secret that he was against the Dream Act and favored the ludicrous idea that anyone found illegally in the country must “self deport” back to the country of their birth.
Yes, those were all policy ideas of the Romney/Ryan Republican ticket, and all those ideas sucked.
In a nation that considers itself the greatest nation on earth, what’s wrong with making sure that the citizens have affordable healthcare instead of going to the emergency room when it’s too late? What’s wrong with allowing women their right to make their own healthcare decisions? And what’s wrong with implementing smart and necessary immigration policies to ensure that children brought to this country at a very young age be allowed to stay in the only country they know.
Those are some of the policies President Obama implemented in his first term – affordable healthcare, allowing women to make their own decisions and The Dream Act that provided a legal status to children brought to this country through no fault of their own. People voted based on what helped their situations, and calling those policies “gifts” exemplifies the problem with Mitt Romney and the Republicans in general – they just don’t get it!
Two different men, two different governing styles, two different sets of policies. And if what these two men said on Wednesday was any indication, Americans chose the right man for the job of President.
