Education (Mitt Romney v. President Obama)

Part of Mitt Romney's plan is to, "began a program to expand charter schools, providing and increasing funding, fighting the legislature's cap and moratorium on charter schools, and successfully increased the number of charter schools and the number of students attending them" (aboutmittromeny.com/education.htm). This is basically saying that by allowing someone who is big with school run them. That government, state, and etc. shouldn't have any part in school what so ever. The charter school still will have to meet the standards but they can teach however they please as long as the students are learning. The person in charge of the school can pay teacher and staff whatever they want, with the money that is given to run the school.

When President Obama's plan is to, "...by encouraging states to work jointly toward a system of common academic standards that builds toward college and career readiness, and that includes improved assessments designed to measure critical knowledge and higher-order thinking skills" (www.whitehouse.gov). His plan is to prepare students for college and the real world. It's to help the student understand that life isn't easy. President Obama wants to improve the way students learn and make them think more than they are now. With higher-standards and assignments that a student that would enjoy doing it, there is a possible that the graduation rate would increase.

I agree with both Mitt Romney and  President Obama the reason is because they both have good ideas. If they were to put both ideas together and would make education better. With Romney's idea plan with charter school and not allowing the government being apart of school is a great idea. President Obama's by wanting to prepare students for college and the career field they want to do. Also to prepare them for the real world that is a plus because most students graduate from high school naive to the world. And being able to understand the world a little more than what they do once they leave high school is great.

Desicion

As of right now my decision would be to re-elect President Obama. The reason behind this is because while looking through Mitt Romney views on things he didn't always go with he's first choice. For example Romney was the person who came up with the healthcare plan while he was Governor of Massachusetts. Now that he is running for president he's against the plan. I don't want a president that one minute likes something and then changes their mind. President Obama sticks behind what he believes in, he doesn't change he's mind. I believe that you should think everything through before making a decision. Which President Obama has showed through out his time in office.

Presidental Issue: Abortion

Abortion will always be very strong topic which will have different views on it. You have people who are "pro-choice" and others that are "pro-life" and that is prefectly fine. President Obama said,
"I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade..." and Mitt Romney said, "... I’m pro-life. And I’m proud of that, and I won’t apologize to anybody for becoming pro-life." This shows two people with two different views on abortion.

President Obama stated, "This is a difficult moral issue. And one of the things that I believe is that to pretend that it's not a moral issue is a mistake. I think that people wrestle with this issue deeply. My belief is simply that women are in the best position to make that very difficult moral decision ..."(Obama). What President Obama basically said was it is a moral problem but it's not something other people should decide for another person. Its a decision that the woman has to make. "I don't know anyone who is 'Pro-abortion'...but woman should make that choice ..."(Obama).He's saying no one believes in abortion but they do believe that there should opposition. It maybe the hardest choice the woman may have to make but its no one else business. Mitt Romney said, "I’ve always been personally pro-life, but for me, it was a great question about whether or not government should intrude in that decision. And when I ran for office, I said I’d protect the law as it was, which is effectively a pro-choice position." This is while he was governor of  Massahcusetts. Mitt Romney still believes that the government should not have a say whether or not if abortions law should be turned over.

I agree with President Obama, even though it maybe immoral it still something someone should be able to choose. No one knows the situation which the woman is in. The woman may have be raped or just isn't fit to rise a child. Its just something she can only change by having an abortion. It will be a hard decision she has to make but no one should judge her or have a problem with the choice she made. 

Political Issues-Abortion

The issue of abortion is very touchy and controversial because it goes against many Americans' moral values or religion and I chose to discuss it due to its popularity right now. President Obama and Mitt Romney are on opposite sides of the fence when it come to having a stance on the abortion issue. While Obama is pro-choice, Romney is on the opposing side, advocating his belief in pro-life.
     President Obama is very much behind the idea of pro-choice, standind behind the Supreme Court's decision in the Roe v. Wade case and protecting the rights of women. He says, "I have been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority". Obama also stated, "My belief is simply that women are in the best position to make that very difficult moral decision". It is clear that Obama only wants to abide by the rights given to women due to the Roe v. Wade case and have faith in women to make their own decisions. Romney however, stands firmly behind his pro-life decision, even though he once was pro-choice. He announced, "I believe in the sanctity of life from the very beginning until the end" and "I'm not going to apologize for becoming pro-life. I'm proud to be pro-life."
     I agree more with Obama because I personally believe that women should have the right to make their own decisions. I especially agree when it comes to cases of rape, incest or bad health conditions, because having the baby can cause a woman to have some kind of serious mental break down and bad health conditions can have a detremental effect on the woman or even the baby. However, even if a woman did not get pregnant due to rape or incest and does not have a bad health condition, I still believe that she should have the right to decide, because the government should not be allowed to tell a woman what to do with her body.

-Nia B.

Foreign Affairs (Iraq/Afghanistan)- Shanique

      Based upon the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Mitt Romney believes that we should not be too involved in helping the Afghanis fight their war on independence. Only the Afghanis can free themselves from the Talibans. He also believes that our policy in Afghanistan should not be based solely on economic costs. "...You don't make a decision about our involvement in a conflict based on dollars and cents alone or certainly not with regards to politics." As for Obama, he is currently starting to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan. By the end of 2011, 10,000troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. We have made much progress with the problems towards al-Qa'ida by killing 20 out of 30 of its top ten leaders.
       I believe that Foreign Affairs is the most important issue in the U.S. right now because with all our involvement in other countries, we end up spending more money. With all this extra money going towards our involvement with other countries problems, it causes more debt in our country. This leads to more budget cuts and more people losing jobs.  Also, this extra spending is affecting education because with the increase in budget cuts, tuitions are being raised, teachers are being laid off, and less school supplies are being given to schools. I do agree with what Romney is saying because the U.S. should not be helping other nations fight their independence wars. Only the people within that country can win their war.

Scott, Andy. "Romney on the Issues." 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Romney/Issues.php>.

"Foreign Policy." The White House. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy>.

Arab Spring Obama vs. Romney

Obama appears to have reached three conclusions about the Arab Spring. It represented a genuine and liberal democratic rising that might replace regimes. American opposition to these risings might result in the emergence of anti-American regimes in these countries. The United States must embrace the general idea of the Arab risings but be selective in specific cases; thus, it should support the rising in Egypt, but not necessarily in Bahrain. (Friedman) He has went to reconcile Israel that has no intention of returning to the geopolitically vulnerable borders of 1967 with a Hamas with no intention of publicly acknowledging Israel’s right to exist with Fatah hanging in the middle. Obama's plan is saying, we must take risks in the short run to be on the right side of history in the long run. “If you look around the world and say, ‘Have things become better or become worse under President Obama?’, you know the answer. They’ve become much worse,” he said. (Eldridge)  Romney does not have aspecific stance on what he plans to do upon implementing change pertaining to that of the Arab Spring. He basically blames Obama for everything and says it is, "out of control in some respects because the president was not as strong as he needed to be in encouraging our friends to move toward representative forms of government."

Homeland/National Security

Mitt Romney's plan concerning the country's security focuses on "restoring the 3 foundations of American power"(Romney), through strong values, a strong economy, and a strong military. Romney believes that a "strong America is the best guarantor of peace and the best patron of liberty" (Romney). He plans to build back America's economy on "the principles of free enterprise, hard work and innovations, which will deter its rivals, reaasure its allies and strengthen its overall influence abroad" (Romney). Romney's national security plan also depends on having a strong military, because "military power is vital to the preservation of our own security and peace around the world" (Romney). With his military plan, Romney plans on reversing Obama's era-defense spending cuts.

Obama's homeland security plan is "committed to ensuring the U.S. is true to our values and ideals, while also protecting the American people" (Obama). In order to ensure our country's values, ideals and protection, Obama wants to prevent terrorist attacks, and other threats against our homeland, preparing and planning for emergencies and investing in strong response and recovery capabilities. His homeland security plan also includes: "strengthening our bio and nuclear security, improving intelligence capacity and information sharing, ensuring a secure global digital and information and communications infrastructure, comprehensive transborder security and promoting the resillency of our physical and social infrastructure" (Obama).

-Nia B.