Next week, I will be in Minneapolis – St. Paul as an elected delegate from Utah to the Republican National Convention. The Democrats are “whooping it up” in Denver (one of my most favorite cities because of my prior church mission there but I am strongly opposed to the thought of Barrack Obama as President of the United States). Like many Republicans, I am anxiously waiting to see who McCain will pick as his running mate. I believe the economy is Obama and Biden’s achilles heel. The economy is what everybody in America is worried about and McCain would be smart to select Mitt Romney to ensure a winning ticket. Consider the following:
Before the 1992 Presidential election, George Bush Sr. successfully lead the nation through the Gulf War. The President’s popularity surged and his re-election seemed certain. However, Bush’s emphasis on foreign policy issues left him vulnerable to charges that he had neglected the more important “pocket book” issues here at home. An obscure Arkansas Governor (who we later learned was not truthful with the Country) managed to win the election. His campaign team was continually told, “It’s the economy, stupid!” It was the economy that moved Ross Perot to enter the race as a third party candidate. He ultimately drew enough votes away from Bush that Clinton won the presidency with less than a majority (43%).
Barrack Obama knows that today’s voters are justifiably leery of his youth, inexperience and weak grasp of national security and foreign policy. Thus, he has chosen Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. Why? Because Biden helps offset those weaknesses. Obama is young and has precious little foreign policy experience (or much other experience for that matter). Four years ago, when we elected our President, he was serving as a State Legislator in Illinois. He now has three years of experience as a U.S. Senator but has spent almost all of that time running for President. Joe Biden is 65 years old and has been a United States Senator for the past 35 years (ever since Obama was 12 years old).
Although the Biden choice may seem smart and perhaps adequate to plug the holes in Obama’s resume, it does absolutely nothing to address the economy and the financial and business concerns of everyday Americans. Nonetheless, Obama and Biden try with their rhetoric to reassure and connect with the “average citizen”. It won’t work. The economy is what is on everyone’s mind and it is no time to trust in the Democrat vision of big(ger) government and higher taxes. (Remember that Reagan lowered taxes to 28% and government revenues soared when people had greater incentive to work, save, dream and invest).
McCain’s age, experience and military background are such that he doesn’t need to do anything more with his selection of a running mate to strengthen his foreign policy credentials. He needs, instead, to strengthen and highlight what the Republican ticket can and will do to renew and lift our economy. (This also must not be at the expense of such critical moral issues as abortion, marriage and family values).
Of all the candidates that McCain is considering for Vice President, Mitt Romney is the strongest potential addition to the Republican ticket. His selection will underscore that the key issue in this campaign is the economy while Obama’s talk of “change” will leave Americans with little or no change in their pockets.
Romney’s impressive business background, management of the 2002 Winter Olympics and his executive experience as Governor of Massachusetts would be a refreshing addition to McCain’s strong military and national security qualifications. That is something that Obama and Biden completely lack.
It is more than ironic that Obama would promise “change” in Washington and then pick a career politician for his Vice President. Biden has no first hand business experience. He has been a career politician since he was 29 years of age. In his short three years in office, Obama already has the #1 most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate. Biden is #3. This is an extreme left ticket that hopes to rely on personality, charm and skilled speechwriters to sell the American people what will surely prove to be a “bait and switch” agenda. Neither seems to understand the “free” in “free enterprise”.
In response to the current energy crisis, Obama has said that he will “require that 10% of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term – more than double what we have now.” His answer is simply to “require” (demand or mandate) his desired outcome with no grasp of how our economy operates and the principles of free enterprise upon which it is based. In the same sense, he is quick to raise taxes while assuring voters that some other taxpayer will foot the bill and feel the pain if they’ll just give him their vote.
Obama has also promised that “we will get 1 million, 150-mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our roads within six years.” Somehow, he is going to get a million consumers to buy these cars. How will he do it? As George Will has written, most certainly by federal financial incentives, which means billions of dollars in tax subsidies for auto makers and billions more to bribe customers to buy cars they would otherwise spurn.
Obama is counting on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts that have done so much to keep our economy strong since 9/11. Ronald Reagan’s principled conservatism and strong faith in free enterprise produced a prolonged era of prosperity (“Morning in America”). This would have continued uninterrupted if George Bush Sr. did not violate his “read my lips – no new taxes” pledge. He was conned at the time by the Democrat majority in Congress to accept a “minor” tax increase. That was the crack in the foundation and Clinton pushed for even higher taxes while emptying the cupboards and squandering the “peace dividend” from Reagan’s Cold War victory.
The George W. Bush tax cuts reversed the upward trend in taxes but the Democrats in Congress are now salivating over the coming expiration of the tax cuts. It will give them an automatic tax increase without requiring them to vote on it. After 2010, they can begin spending the additional money that will be sucked out of the economy on Obama’s watch if he is successful in his illusionary “change” campaign.
So who will McCain pick as Vice President now that Obama has moved to “check” his foreign policy and experience credentials? McCain would do well to keep the focus on the economy and add the executive experience, business credentials and strong moral character of Mitt Romney to complete the Republican ticket. That would be “checkmate” in 2008.
Posted by: LaVar Christensen