In less than a week, the United States will wake up thankful that the deluge of negative campaign ads has ended. There is no question that this country is divided along partisan lines. Sure, it takes two to tango, but the Republicans -- Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said "my No. 1 priority is making sure President Obama's a one-term president" in October 2010 -- have been more obstructionists than problem solvers.
We believe Obama has earned the right to continue for another four years. But, our support of the president goes far beyond making sure the Republicans don't gain from their obstructionism.
The president has shown real political backbone when it came to dealing with this nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; to hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden; to end the war in Iraq and start to bring back our troops from Afghanistan; and, to passing health care reform, among other achievements. That he accomplished all these with Republican obstructionists is a big credit to his role as a leader.
Job creation is on the increase, the mortgage mess is stabilizing and the stock market has rebounded to pre-2008 meltdown levels.
Gov. Mitt Romney has his own positive record, but his stance on various issues have been all over the map in his quest to paint himself as a "moderate." It is too risky to wait until he is in the White House to know what the Republican presidential candidate would do with immigration reform, relations in the Middle East, and, economic stability.
Obama will need to lobby the American people to get a stubborn Republican Party to contribute to solving issues like immigration reform, continued economic recovery, and, implementation of health care reform.
Vida en el Valle recommends a second term for President Obama.