Answered with brevity: I pay taxes therefore I must approve of our leadership. By the act of paying taxes, I've already acquiesced my willingness to venerate through mandated contribution the current commander in chief with a biweekly cash donation. Should command of the watch change from Obama to Romney, my contribution will continue--albeit a greater or lesser sum depending on modifications made or not to federal taxation regulation. I'll get back to you on that one.
Does Obama "deserve" my vote? To quote an edited TV version of a film I've grown quite fond of: "I feel like a worm on a big fishing hook." Worm or not, I fail to register--intellectually--the value of "deserve" in relation to titans of modern American Politics. Hypothetically, no Obama does not deserve my vote any more than say, Romney or Paul or Bruce Willis. Perhaps if the president could answer my personal requests--in person, in a timely manner--he'd "deserve" some veneration. As it stands, the mysterious doings of the political colossi domestically and abroad sound like distant drums to my heavily padded ears.
Just answer the question of who your going to vote for.
I remain undecided. Cynicism aside, while I do not believe either candidate deserves my vote, I do believe the act of voting is the sole means of voicing my limited constitutional right to "chime in" on election day.
In response to the topic of the OP, I do not believe any given or nominated presidential candidate inherently deserves the vote of any U.S. Citizen. Neither candidate's political record is completely void of merit, nor flawlessly five-by-five. Were I to research the personal and professional political biographies of each candidate, without doubt I would discover some aspect, some achievement or belief held with which I could personally and or politically relate. One then must fall back on the public record of each candidate, and investigate the veracity of their claims overlayed with their actual "deeds" to determine the consistency with which they have demonstrated adherence to their individual stances on any given issue.
What you really wish to know, is whether I am a Dem or Rep. From there you can more easily decide how to address me in subsequent posts. But back to the debate.
Reasons Why Obama Does Not Deserve My Vote Specifically:
A. As a veteran I find disturbing the failure of our President to withdraw major combat forces from Afghanistan. Talk about distant drums. Every day one or five or eight U.S. Soldiers die. Their deaths are recorded quietly, obfuscated by a general lack of outrage in either the media or by demonstrators on our streets. Every soldier's death from the Cook who died in a random mortar attack, to the Combat Engineer erased by an IED, ought to be nationwide front page news. Call the failure to withdraw Obama's fault or not. This is his watch.
B. Medical Care. Recently I was forced--by my employer--to change insurance providers. The new provider's plan covers less than half what the old did. Where does that leave me? Who is to blame? Will Mitt bring relief? At this point, it's worth a shot.
C. Foreign Policy. I have difficulty wrapping my mind around several foreign policy events which have transpired on the President's watch. The death of our ambassador to Libya. To describe it as an embarrassing lack of foresight on the part of the executive branch does not quite cut it. Foreign Policy leaks. The release of classified info thus far during the President's tenure is inexplicable and troubling. More control from within please. The Arab Spring looks great when taken at face value. How much have we the American People spent to fund it? Which and how many domestic programs were snuffed or underfunded to make it happen? Whose administration wanted to try Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts? China has been rattling it's considerable saber for years. Time to rattle our larger and sharper one.
D. Preservation of Fundamental American Values. There's much to debate here. Suffice it to say certain institutions may be compromised during a second Obama term. Something with which I do not agree. While I do not trust Romney to protect said institutions, I do hope the party base will keep him in line.
E. Change I Can Understand. Many of us bought into the hype in '08. It was contagious. Four years later, I look around my slice of the Mundus and fail to see change that makes sense, has benefitted me or mine, has added to genuine good rather than subtracted.
