Editorial: For Romney
BY World's Editorial Writers
Sunday, November 04, 2012
11/04/12 at 3:02 AM
The Tulsa World's endorsement of Mitt Romney for president in effect seconds the unequivocal choice of most voters here in America's reddest state.
Oklahoma is not an Ohio, with its swing-vote status. Most Oklahomans made up their minds about Barack Obama four years ago. Nothing in the years of economic turmoil and hardship leading up to Tuesday's election has remotely tempted a change of heart.
A vote for Romney is a logical continuation of the conservative Republican momentum and philosophy that has captured the state and placed two U.S. senators, four out of five congressmen, the governor and all secondary state officeholders in office.
While his campaign's feel-good theme of hope and change catapulted Obama into the White House, many of the jobless in Oklahoma and across America feel anything but good about their lives and futures. They are not better off than they were four years ago. Given the monumental issues confronting this nation, it is with Romney that hope and change might be realized.
That starts with a Congress whose composition is unlikely to change much with Tuesday's vote. It is far-fetched to believe Obama would achieve a different result in a second term. Romney, by both party affiliation and personal style, has the better chance of becoming the master mechanic who unlocks Congress' gears, convincing lawmakers that the status quo is unsustainable. Romney is a businessman and he will get down to the business of reversing a $16 trillion debt, falling family incomes, lingering high unemployment, a 15 percent national poverty rate.
Romney, with cooperation from Congress, has the best chance of getting America past the impending crisis of massive tax hikes and devastating and indiscriminate spending cuts - the fiscal cliff that imperils both our national and personal economies.
Indisputably, Obama inherited a bad hand but leaders find a way around adversity. Bill Clinton, while working with Republicans, lead the country to economic boom and created budget surpluses. Romney brings his experience as a Republican governor of Massachusetts where Democrats dominated that legislature. He would provide the fiscal discipline needed to reduce the deficit and jump-start the economy. He would create a common-sense regulatory and tax climate that incorporates the stability and certainty needed to generate investment and create jobs.
A Romney presidency would be better for Oklahoma, which depends on its energy industry for the lion's share of its revenues. His support of small businesses, upon whose success Oklahomans rely, would give that sector the confidence to invest and grow. Greater job growth would reduce the high rate of poverty, a heavy foot on Oklahoma's ability to thrive.
Tuesday's election comes down to a sense of mission. President Obama's intentions were good but he did not accomplish his mission; he is unlikely to do so in a second term given the composition of Congress and the deep divisions within the populace. A new direction is needed.
Mitt Romney has the better compass.
Original Print Headline: For Romney
