Clinton Hands Obama Baton For Final Lap

Tonight Obama gets to run the final lap in the race which will determine what kind of a nation we want.

 [Black Star News Editorial]
 
Between
Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Elizabeth Warren voters this week
were reminded about the stark differences between the Democratic and
Republican parties.

The Democrats are the party of hope,
inclusion, diversity, dreams and possibilities: while the Republicans
during their Convention last week decided to peddle hate, divisions,
fears, race-baiting and exclusivity. 
 
Whereas the theme at this
year’s Democratic party convention in North Carolina has been how to
continue building a new and better America the Republicans speak of  “taking back our country” —  a return to the Good ole days. 
 
That’s the America that some members of the Tea Party still dream about. The
America where it took federal troops to help integrate the schools and
diners and public transportation system. The America where it took a
Voting Rights Amendment to empower Black people at the ballot boxes. Voting rights that Republicans are working furiously to reverse by eliminating early voting and imposing new voter identification requirements.

Sadly,
race baiting has been embraced at the top of the Republican Party with
Mitt Romney during his own convention nomination acceptance speech
claiming it “takes an American” to accomplish great feats. Following his
recent malicious statement in Michigan that no one asks him for his
“birth certificate” it’s clear who Romney was trying to reach with his
ugly message. 
 
Contrast the Republicans’ message with what we’ve heard so far from the Democrats at their convention. 
 
Democrats spoke about how women must continue to make reproductive
health rights decisions themselves; unlike the Republicans who, led by
Rep. Ryan and Rep. Todd Akin, had sponsored a bill barring abortion
funding except in cases of “forcible” rape, a term Akin later possibly
clarified as “legitimate rape.” 
 
Democrats want humane
immigration reform so the nation’s new comers don’t live in constant
fear and become integrated into the nation’s productive workforce; Romney has opposed The Dream Act and spoken in the past about “self” deportation for those who are already here.

Democrats
speak of government continuing to work with the private sector to accelerate
economic recovery, while Republicans have been parading individuals who
boast of proudly “building it” all by themselves; including presumably the roads, airports and communication systems that lead products to market.

Democrats
fought for the healthcare bill while Republicans vow to repeal it as
mission number one, even though: seniors now enjoy benefits such as
medication coverage to ensure that there’s no longer a gap in the amount
paid for by insurers; people under 26 can remain on their
parents’ coverage; and Americans are enjoying refunds from insurers. 
 
Democrats
know that huge deficits are a threat to the nation’s long-term economic
health and, as Clinton noted, Obama agrees that for every
dollar in new revenue there should be a $2.5 reduction in the deficit
 — Democrats don’t believe deficit reduction should come at the expense
of middle class and low income Americans as will inevitably happen if
Romney’s and Ryan’s tax cuts for the wealthy plan is enacted. 
 
Clinton
also last night brilliantly debunked three of Romney’s and Ryan’s
cardinal lies: about welfare reform; Medicare; and the stimulus program.
 
 
Romney and Ryan have been running around telling voters that
President Obama “robbed” $716 billion from Medicare to fund Obama Care.  
 
Clinton
exposed this falsehood and distortion of the facts. Obama reduced the
proposed payments to insurance companies going forward so that the
savings can go into programs such as filling the donut hole; the difference in seniors’ medical bills that aren’t currently covered.
 Moreover, the Obama savings extends the life of Medicare by eight more
years. 
 
Clinton noted that Rep. Ryan also has the same $716
billion saving in his own budget proposal. As Clinton says: it
takes a lot of brass (read “balls”) for Ryan to accuse someone of doing
the same thing he’s done. 
 
Clinton demolished the lie that
President Obama eliminated the work requirement for welfare recipients.
Romney and Ryan have been running ads, featuring White working people,
while claiming that welfare recipients no longer have to work to receive
their checks. 
 
This is Romney’s own version of Ronald Reagan’s
infamous Cadillac-driving Black welfare Queens. The hope is to enrage
White voters, with malicious and false advertisement, into voting for
Romney. Race baiting at its most ugly form. 

Romney approved the advertisement. He’s not a fool; he endorsed the blatant race baiting. Talk about lack of character.
 
Clinton reminded
viewers that after state governors approached the Obama Administration
and asked for some flexibility in designing their welfare programs in
light of high unemployment, permission  was granted provided the net
outcome would be 20% more employment — not “less work”, or “no work.”
 
Clinton also reminded the nation of the benefits of job-creating stimulus programs, something Republicans religiously oppose. 
 
Since
coming to office the Obama Administration has now created 4.5 million
new jobs; contrast this with the 400,000 to 700,000 jobs that were being
shed a month when the president took office in January 2009 a legacy of the George W. Bush great recession. 
 
While
Romney famously declared “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” in a New York Times
Op-Ed, the Obama Administration’s auto-industry bail out created more
than 250,000 jobs that would not exist today. 
 
President Barack
Obama accepted the baton when he embraced Clinton on stage last night.
Tonight he gets to run the final lap in the race which will determine
what kind of a nation we want. 
 
The America of today and tomorrow; or the America of Romney’s and Ryan’s fathers of the 1950s.


“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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