The question came to me from a social media acquaintance.
He asked: “… just for the record are you sorry you voted for this incompetent community organizer?”
My answer to him: No.
I now shall elaborate.
The “incompetent community organizer,” of course, is Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States, who’s finding himself engaged in yet another struggle of wills with the folks in Congress who would oppose virtually anything he proposed at any level.
I’ve voted in every presidential election since 1972 and have never regretted a single vote I’ve cast for the candidate of my choice — win or lose.
Why should I regret my votes for Barack Obama in 2008 and again in 2012?
For starters, the 2008 campaign amid the worst economic crisis to hit the United States since the Great Depression. It occurred on George W. Bush’s watch and Sen. Obama pledged to take swift action to stop the free fall in our job rolls, our retirement account, the stock market, the housing market, the banking industry and the automobile industry. I trusted him then to do all of the above.
You know what? He delivered. The economic stimulus package, which the GOP opposed, contributed to improving the economic condition at many levels.
I did not hear Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, offer a solid solution to what was ailing our economy. And when he stopped campaigning to return to Washington when the stock market all but imploded, well, that told me — and apparently millions of other Americans — that Sen. McCain didn’t have a clue what to do.
Four years later, the economy had improved significantly, but Republicans kept insisting it was in the tank. The numbers told a different story.
Let’s not forget: Millions of Americans now have health insurance who didn’t have it before.
Yes, the country faced foreign policy crises on Obama’s watch. But as the 2012 campaign developed and the GOP nominated Mitt Romney to run against the president, it became clear — at least to me — that the Republicans didn’t have any clear answers on how to deal with those crises short of going back to war.
I had grown tired of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Iraq War is over. The Afghanistan War is about to end. Yes, the Islamic State has risen in Iraq and Syria. However, is it the president’s fault entirely that we’re fighting another bloodthirsty terrorist organization? Hardly. We all knew the “Global War on Terror” well could be a war without end.
So, I voted once again for Barack Obama.
He’s now facing yet another challenge from the “loyal opposition,” which frankly doesn’t appear to be all that loyal.
History is going to judge the community organizer a lot more kindly than his critics are doing so today.
Therefore, I stand by my support of Barack Obama.