Un-Letter to the Editor

Editorial: “Barack Obama for Reelection”

The argument within the editorial is that Barack Obama should be reelected and there is no competition because (1) “Mr. Obama has achieved the most sweeping health care reforms since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965”, (2) “Mr. Obama prevented another Great Depression” by pushing through more tax-write offs, (3) “Mr. Obama and his administration have been resolute in attacking Al Qaeda’s leadership, including the killing of Osama bin Laden. He has ended the war in Iraq”, (4) “Mr. Obama, who appointed the impressive Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, understands how severely damaging conservative activism has been in areas like campaign spending”, (5) “Mr. Obama, however, has reversed Bush administration policies that chipped away at minorities’ voting rights and has fought laws, like the ones in Arizona, that seek to turn undocumented immigrants into a class of criminals”, (6) and by Romney supposed opposing all of the good that Obama supports in junction with “the issues”, Obama is obviously the better choice and will continue to lead our country to greatness.

Perhaps Mr. Obama should be reelected for presidency or perhaps not. The reelection isn’t in question on this blog, what is in question is the argument made by the editorial.

Let me try to get my facts in order in response to this article.

(1)    Mr. Obama’s “sweeping health care reform(s)” commonly referred to as “Obamacare” and legally referred to as the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)” was signed into law March 23 2010, most of its major provisions (the ones which could be described as the backbone of the reform) will be in place January 2014 and the rest of the provisions will be in place as soon as 2020. The issue with this argument is that it is currently November 2012, only some of the provisions are in place. Due to the reelection being in only a matter of days and the rest of the provisions not going into place until at least 2014, I don’t see how the “sweeping health care reforms” should be listed as an achievement just yet.

(2)    If more tax write-offs are being pushed through, of course the economy is going to not be nearly as bad as the Great Depression; however, more tax write-offs do nothing to address the poor economy, major debt and furthermore, the United States of America still doesn’t have enough money in the National Treasury to back up all of the dollar bills floating around in the economy

(3)    “On October 21, 2011, President Obama announced that all U.S. troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing the U.S. mission in Iraq to an end. On December 15, 2011, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta officially declared the Iraq War over, at a flag lowering ceremony in Baghdad. The last U.S. troops left Iraqi territory on December 18, 2011 at 4:27 UT.” As many individuals will question, if the war has ended in Iraq why are more troops still being sent over, an entire year later?

(4)    Understanding “how severely damaging conservative activism has been in areas like campaign spending” is an entirely separate entity in comparison to action. Why is it that the knowledge of someone President Obama has appointed is an arguable fact that President Obama is obviously the better option? Most individuals understand the difference between good and bad, but of these people, many of them still do bad things, no matter their understanding – this is always a possibility – so wouldn’t it be better to bring into question what good the appointed official has done, rather than what they know?

(5)    While researching, I actually found evidence which supports this argument. “President Obama strongly supports the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented young people to earn a path to citizenship through military service or the pursuit of a higher education. He has joined Latino leaders and immigrant advocates in a "full court press" to fight for its passage because he understands that it “makes no sense to expel talented young people from our country as Americans.”” [link]

(6)    It is always nice to claim one thing or another, but where is the evidence to back up this claim?

This editorial is decently presented, however, many of the claims lack viable evidence as support. The editorial in question is three pages long on the New York Times website, which means I have left some information out of my opinionated response, but a lot (not all) of the information appears to be “fluff” to me.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that President Obama has not performed the actions listed in the article, nor am I suggesting that President Obama is a bad leader, President, or what have you. Honestly, I did not choose this article to question the President, but I did choose it to question the methods the author chose to convince readers that President Obama should be reelected.