So Is There an Agenda for the Second Obama Term?

We are two weeks and two days from the election. Between now and then, there will be a debate on foreign policy and the usual barrage of tv ads in swing states accompanied by huge rallies and get out the vote efforts. It is not the time when new domestic plans are unveiled. Anything that Romney or Obama want to promote is already out there. Indeed, with the debate focused on foreign policy, it is problematic to even expect much of a discussion of the economy at Monday's debate. So we now can face up to the biggest question that voters must answer: who will do a better job for America and the American people over the next four years?

That's right, the question is not whether or not Obama did a good job during the last four years. That's history; it is over already. The question is what will happen going forward, and who has a better chance of improving the lives of the average American.

This question right now is the one for which Mitt Romney has the better answer as far as the American people are concerned. Anyone who watched either presidential debate knows about Romney's five point plan for the economy and jobs. Anyone who has taken the time to go to Romney's website understands that Romney actually has an extremely detailed fifty-seven part plan that covers those five parts of which Romney spoke. The average American understands that Romney, in the past, has shown himself capable of running a large enterprise like a major corporation or the Olympic Games, so there is a good reason to believe that Mitt could actually carry out his plan to reinvigorate the economy and create jobs and prosperity. Without a doubt, there are gaps in the plan which will need to be filled in should Romney will the election, but the average person has a sense that Romney knows what to do and how to do it. Obama, however, is a different story. Simply put, Obama has no plan for the economy. Oh, we all know that Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, but no one, not even Obama, contends that doing so will create economic growth or new jobs. Obama wants the tax increase for the sake of what he calls "fairness", not growth. Obama also talks about improving the education system, but this is done in general terms; there are no specifics. Here too, no one claims that improving eduction will grow the economy in the short run. Beyond that, Obama talks about the need for "green energy" and all the jobs that support for green energy will bring. Of course, we all know that during the last four years, Obama spent tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars on green energy, and all we have seen from that effort is bankruptcies and losses of taxpayer money rather than economic growth. In other words, Obama has no real agenda for a second term on the most important issue facing the country and voters: the economy.

No voter who is concerned about the future wants to pick a president who seems to be out of ideas for growing the economy. Things have been bad for four years, and they are not getting better. The economy is growing more slowly this year than it did last year. Last year, it grew more slowly than the year before. The whole American economy seems to be running out of gas. Something needs to be done to get it moving forward again. Even folks who might not be able to state the problem clearly understand in their gut that something has to be done and it needs to be done soon. Obama, however, is offering nothing but more of the same. That is more of the same policies that have already failed to get the USA growing again. That is more of the same policies that have run up the national debt to unbelievable heights. That is more of the same policies that have left 23 million Americans without jobs and without even the prospect of a job.

There is an old saying that you cannot beat something with nothing. Romney has a reasonable plan. Obama has nothing. Obama is going to lose.