Mitt Romney is the best choice for the White House

Four years ago, America was promised a great deal of change. What the nation got, however, was more of the same.

In particular, more debt and more unemployment. And rather than being someone who could reach across party lines and ideology to form a consensus, President Barack Obama is president of a nation that is more sharply divided than ever.

With America’s recovery from the Great Recession one that is slow and unsure, the nation needs an individual at the helm who understands business and how to create a climate in which business and entrepreneurship can thrive.

We believe that person is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Romney’s detractors have attempted to paint him as an elitist who is out of touch with mainstream America, holding the fact that he has been financially successful against him. A Super PAC that supports Obama even tried to claim Romney was personally responsible for the death of a woman whose husband lost his job at a business that was taken over by Bain Capital. It turned out the man’s company was closed years after Romney left Bain, and the wife had her own insurance provided at her job after her husband was let go.

Much of that Democratic-drawn imagery disappeared with the first debate, one that 60 percent of Americans polled thought Obama would win hands-down. Since then, Obama’s once sizable lead in the polls has dwindled to the point where the race is a dead heat.

In one considerable note of irony, Obama and his supporters are pointing to Romney’s lack of experience, the very same charge that was made against Obama, a first-term senator, in 2008. What is overlooked is the experience Romney has had as governor of Massachusetts. Unlike Obama in 2008, Romney knows what it’s like to be the chief executive officer of a government. And he certainly knows that a national debt that has swollen to $16 trillion — including four consecutive years of more than $1 trillion in deficit spending under Obama with more guaranteed to come if he’s re-elected — is unsustainable.

Obama has attacked Romney on foreign policy, but we believe Romney would develop one that is much more cohesive. While Osama bin Laden was killed on Obama’s watch and we have credited the president for making that call, his foreign policies are so muddled that our strongest allies have no real idea where America stands with them, especially Israel. Particularly alarming was the administration’s poor reaction to the Sept. 11, 2012, death of our ambassador to Libya during a precision terrorist attack that was characterized for a week by the administration as a mob reaction to an anti-Islam video. Romney would be more interested in foreign policy, which is critical in the world marketplace, and our allies would know exactly where he stands, as would our enemies.

Obama’s plans to further reduce our military strength — the White House insisted on defense being included in that ridiculous sequestration deal that is bearing down on us — and his poor performance in regard to the economy where the national unemployment is “only” 7.8 percent because of the large number of Americans who have become so disillusioned that they have quit looking for work are being hidden behind a smokescreen of social issues. The two top jobs that have to be done are maintaining our defense and getting Americans back to work.

The president has proven he doesn’t understand this. And his lack of performance is why he has been leaning so heavily on former President Bill Clinton as a surrogate candidate, essentially trying to convince voters that a vote for Obama is a vote for Clinton. And rather than take blame for his failures, he continues to point fingers at the Bush administration.

Romney understands the situation Americans are in, and we believe he is our best hope for meeting the challenge of the next four years.