{"id":94703,"date":"2012-08-18T01:33:44","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T05:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/94703\/differences-obama-romney-guide\/"},"modified":"2012-08-18T01:33:44","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T05:33:44","slug":"differences-obama-romney-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/94703\/differences-obama-romney-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"No Differences Between Obama and Romney? An A to Z Guide…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since we\u2019re in a the heart of the presidential election season, and I am a supporter of Barack Obama, I am going to continue to blog politically, this one a direct follow up to a comment I received in my last blog. <\/font><\/p>\n

Here’s what Just Jeff commented: <\/font><\/p>\n

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I respect his opinion, but it’s not one I’ve not heard before.
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No ardent Romney supporters comment my blog; there are very few enough out there.\u00a0 Lots and lots of folks who will vote for Romney (or Obama, for that matter) just consider him the lesser of two evils.\u00a0 They don\u2019t really support the guy, they just think that since there\u2019s not much difference anyways, they might as well vote the way they\u2019ve usually done, for the Republican.<\/p>\n

Well, this blog is addressing the \u201cthere\u2019s no difference\u201d<\/strong> believers.\u00a0 To those who say that Romney and Obama are the same, that they both serve the same corporate masters, that they wish Ron Paul had been nominated, well… I didn’t happen.\u00a0 Now what?\u00a0 If you think they’re both the same, how do you decide?<\/font><\/p>\n

I want to point out to you in 26 points how your two remaining candidates differ. Alphabetically.\u00a0 They ARE different; from A to Z.
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\nThe A to Z of how Obama and Romney differ. <\/strong>
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\n\"\"A: AFGHANISTAN.<\/strong> Can you remember less than a year ago when the last US troops left Iraq?\u00a0 As a peacenik liberal, I was very disappointed that Obama announced that his \u201cwithdrawal\u201d in 2009 would leave 60,000 American troops in country.\u00a0 Then, bam!, what seemed like out of the blue (but was actually in accordance with agreements we\u2019d made with the sovereign powers in that country), we up and left, entirely.\u00a0 Oh, how Romney called this a mistake by Obama to leave Iraq.\u00a0 Point being, we have a similar agreement with Afghanistan for the year 2014, wherein we\u2019re gone.\u00a0 Shoulda done it 10 years ago, but that said, based on how Romney viewed to protocols with Iraq, I doubt he\u2019d leave the Republican\u2019s favorite war just because some piece of paper told him to.\u00a0 Difference A: in his second term, Obama will get us out of Afghanistan like he did Iraq.\u00a0 Romney will not.
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\nB.\u00a0 BIRTH CONTROL.<\/strong> Romney has stated on television that he supports a \u201cpersonhood\u201d amendment that would outlaw the most popular forms of birth control (like the pill) as well as invitro fertilization.\u00a0 Romney also supports an employer exempting itself from the law of the land when it comes making sure that your company-supported health insurance provides coverage for\u00a0 perscription-only birth control (the pill, for many women, the only perscription they take).\u00a0 Difference B: Romney is anti-Birth Control<\/p>\n

\"\"C. COAL.<\/strong> Recently, Romney himself said Obama was on a \u201cWar on Coal\u201d.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s 100% true, but I sure hope it is.\u00a0 Sorry my brothers in West Virginia and environs, Coal is 19th Century fuel that we cannot support in this world of global warming.\u00a0 We need to do everything we can to get OFF coal, not just because it destroys entire mountains and watersheds through “mountaintop removal”, but because it is the worst carbon offender when it comes to fuel sources.\u00a0 Heck, why not just go ahead and support wood-burning power sources?!?\u00a0 Difference C:\u00a0 Coal policy, for which we\u2019ll take Romney\u2019s word on.
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\nD:\u00a0 DIVERSITY<\/strong>.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, the Republicans are the party of white people trying to defend white privilidge. Sure, there are lots of people of color who support the Republicans for their social or fiscal conservatism, but ever since the \u201cSouthern Strategy\u201d of Nixon (and leave it to a guy like Tricky Dick to come up with this), a large part of the Republican strategy for winning national elections is to\u00a0 prey upon the fears and prejudices of the white majority.\u00a0 Fear of \u201cThe Other\u201d is a natural human tendency, rooted deep in our primal concern for our tribal allegiances and fears that those strangers who look different than us will knock us out of our supporting territory.\u00a0 The Republicans have overtly tried to tap into that fear for 40 years in their attempts to procure power, kinda ironic for the party of Lincoln.\u00a0 The Democrats, by and large, are for overcoming the primal fears of our ancestors and moving forward to embrace the strength\u00a0 and vigor of diversity. Difference D: Romney courts those who fear those who look different; Obama looks different.
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\nE.\u00a0 ENERGY. <\/strong> Every president in the last 40 years has said we need to ween ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil.\u00a0 None have succeeded.\u00a0 At least Obama supports things like ending the tax subsidies for big oil, something the Republicans oppose. Stopping oil pipelines due to environmental concerns also shows that Obama is not a slave to the oil interests.\u00a0 Sure, our current president could have done better when it comes to a progressive energy policy, but certainly a Republican like Romney would have done worse.\u00a0 Difference E: Energy policy<\/p>\n

\"\"F: FREEDOM: <\/strong> One very valid concern I\u2019ve heard from several they\u2019re-both-the-same friends is Obama\u2019s continuance of Bush-era tendencies to allow for civil rights abuses within the USA.\u00a0 Many point to the NDAA\u00a0 from earlier this year as an example of how our government now has unprecedented ability to arrest, detain and oppress American liberties.\u00a0 Now, no one is saying these oppressions are actually HAPPENING.\u00a0 Unlike the Bush presidency, where we wire-tapped, monitored and actively broke the freedoms of American citizens, the Obama Justice Department has done LESS to impinge upon American freedoms whilst perhaps increasing their ability to do so.\u00a0\u00a0 Sure, the executive branch has become even more powerful under Obama.\u00a0 Do we really want to turn these expanded discretionary executive powers over to the likes of Romney?\u00a0 Would he be so restrained?\u00a0 As most of this national security team are remnants of Bush-Cheney years, I think not!\u00a0 Difference F:\u00a0 Obama has not abused American freedoms<\/p>\n

\"\"G.\u00a0\u00a0 GDP. <\/strong> Do you remember what people were talking about back at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009?\u00a0 Personally, I remember a conversation with my parents when people were fearing that the big company I worked for was on the bring of collapse.\u00a0 They told me I could move into the basement it everything fell apart, which seemed like a distinct possibility.\u00a0 We were on the very edge of the complete collapse of our economy due to the policies of the Bush Administration.\u00a0 Romney is proposing going back to those policies.\u00a0 It\u2019s really difficult to credit someone for preventing something that might have happened but did not, but however much flak Obama has received for not shepherding a robust recovery, the kept our country from collapsing into the abyss of a 21st Century Great Depression.\u00a0 He kept me out of my parents\u2019 basement.\u00a0 He\u2019s grown our GDP for 3 years straight after seeing it decline at that critical transition 4 years back.\u00a0\u00a0 Difference G:\u00a0 Gratitude, with me being thankful he kept me from losing my job.
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\nH. HEALTHCARE: <\/strong> How can anyone claim that the two candidates aren\u2019t any different when the challenger openly declares that one of his priorities is to undo the most significant legislation passed under the incumbent administration?\u00a0 We\u2019ll leave aside all the similarities between Massachusett\u2019s Romneycare and Obamacare and just take Mitt at his word that he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0 He wants to allow for insurance companies to reject clients for pre-existing conditions. He wants to repeal the ability for young people to stay on their parents\u2019 plan until the age of 26.\u00a0 He wants to allow for lifetime caps and allow insurance companies to drop people when they get sick.\u00a0 He wants to abandon the idea of state exchanges, wherein citizens who cannot get insurance from their employer can buy reasonably priced policies through the power of their strength in numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 Sure, the ACA was not all it could be, but it was a step in the right direction and Romney wants to get rid of it.\u00a0 Difference H:\u00a0 The ACA.<\/p>\n

I. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS:<\/strong> It seemed like during the Bush years, we saw footage on TV of street protests burning the American Flag as\u00a0 weekly events.\u00a0 From Morrocco to Mongolia, nobody liked America.\u00a0 \"\"In recent years, when we\u2019ve done stuff like invaded Pakistan to get bin Laden or just had stuff happen like American soldiers accidentally, or South Carolina preachers purposefully burning Al Qu\u2019ran, there have been the occasional DOWN WITH AMERICA protests, but all in all, no one will deny that our respect, influence and standing in the community of nations has improved under Obama.\u00a0 Now, some might say that\u2019s not even important, we shouldn\u2019t CARE about world opinion,\u00a0 but I\u2019m not speaking to them.\u00a0 Furthermore, although we can\u2019t say what a Romney presidency would produce in that regard, but if it\u2019s anything like his recent foreign jaunt, I\u2019m scared.\u00a0 Difference I: The World love Obama; Romney pisses people off.
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\nJ.\u00a0 JURISTS:<\/strong> One of the most important roles of the President is to nominate Supreme Court Justices.\u00a0 I think it is somewhat sad that the judicial wing of our government has become so predictable based upon the political leanings of its justices, but given this climate of impartiality, who gets appointed next is of major importance.\u00a0 Who can deny the importance of Supreme Court decisions on our everyday lives?\u00a0 Obama\u2019s two nominees have purported themselves well.\u00a0 You may not think Obama and Romney are all that different, but whom they might nominee to the Court certainly will be.\u00a0 Difference J:\u00a0 Jurisprudence. <\/font><\/p>\n


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So… That is A through J.. a little more than 1\/3 rd of the way through the alphabet.\u00a0 I’ll be back for more, or if you feel so inclined, rebutt my argument with K, L, M, N, or P with how the candidates are, as I’ve heard so many say “The Same”… <\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since we\u2019re in a the heart of the presidential election season, and I am a supporter of Barack Obama, I am going to continue to blog politically, this one a direct follow up to a comment I received in my last blog. Here’s what Just Jeff commented: I respect his opinion, but it’s not one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1031,3413,252,234,4484,1696],"class_list":["post-94703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-1031","tag-election","tag-obama","tag-politics","tag-romney","tag-ron-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}