Taking the spotlight in the news today is the Republican political debates. Some of the candidate’s abilities focus more on jobs while others focus on foreign policy. However, in order to beat President Obama, the American people are looking for a well-rounded person, which is someone who has skills in both foreign and domestic policy and can capture the attention of the American people. So, who would this candidate be? Who has the best chance of beating Barack Obama in the general election and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Currently leading in the Zogby poll is Herman Cain, a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Herman Cain hasn’t had any experience in public office, but many argue that is a positive attribute in his favor. They say that he has not been corrupted by politics, but that inexperience could turn out to be a true weakness. So, one must examine the debate concerning Herman Cain and discern how his strengths and weaknesses compare to those of President Obama by going through all of the hot button issues concerning the United States today.
The primary duty of the President of the United States is to protect our people. In fact, it is the principal duty of a limited federal government. The government must ensure that the United States military and all security agencies are supported and equipped when they are asked to defend this country. Herman Cain believes that our national security is threatened by the war in the Middle East. He believes that the Obama administration has politicized this issue and put our troops in harm's way. Cain’s position on the specifics as to how he would handle these wars is still to be decided. Many could argue that this is his greatest weakness because he hasn’t provided a direct plan. Conversely, one could argue that this is a sign of humility. He has stated that he does not have access to sensitive information known only to the President and his advisors in order to come to a conclusion at this time. He has stated that he would seek and respect the advice of his generals and surround himself with knowledgeable advisors. However, he holds to the belief that we must support our allies. He brought up this point in an interview with Newsmax when he talked about the lack of U.S. support to Israel. He said that if he was president, he would strengthen our alliance with Israel and all of our allies. This is one stance that he has made very clear when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. On the other hand, Obama has embraced our enemies and made excuses for America while he has snubbed our allies. Foreign policy by this administration has been inexcusable. Recently, President Obama asked Israel to return to pre-1967 borders in order to appease Palestine. This action would have left Israel virtually defenseless in the Middle East. Another example of this can be seen in the incident with General McChrystal. McChrystal asked the President for 60,000 troops so that the war could be ended in Afghanistan. The President waited for several months despite McChrystal’s continued urgent requests. Finally after four long months, the President sent only 40,000 troops instead of the 60,000 McChrystal needed. McChrystal finally publically spoke out against the President and Obama fired him. This is an example of Obama playing politics and compromising our national security. Another good example is the Fast and Furious program. In the Fast and Furious program, agents with the federal ATF allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal buyers hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders so they could be arrested. Unfortunately, the ATF lost track of more than 2,000 weapons. This program, however, has been a failure and these U.S. weapons have been used in crimes against our own border patrol guards. President Obama and his administration have tried to distance themselves from this program but more is being revealed daily about the involvement of the current administration. A final example was one of the first actions Obama took in office. President Obama canceled the missile defense shield in Poland committed to Poland by the Bush administration in an effort to appease Russia. This defense shield was proven to be a very effective means of defense for both the U.S. and Poland. After canceling this shield, Obama implemented his own plan for missile defense which not only wasted billions of dollars but has been an abysmal failure. Obama’s policy when it comes to our national security has been dismal at best. While our country is fighting two wars in the Middle East and a possible third in Libya, decreased national security exposes the U.S. to a dangerous world beyond our borders.
It is no secret that federal government spending is out of control. The U.S. government views American taxpayers as a bottomless piggybank for their wasteful programs and expansion of power. That is why Herman Cain takes the position that we the people will not tolerate it any longer. Government spending is the driving force to kill the economy. Of course, all of this is a direct attack on the strategy or lack thereof by President Obama. Because of the out of control spending, Obama’s performance rating has dropped to 42%. Since he has taken office, he has spent over three trillion dollars and plunged us into a debt of almost fifteen trillion dollars putting not only our generation but future generations into massive amounts of debt. His stimulus package has failed in the past and another stimulus package will only fail in the future.
Clearly, the American people are not fooled by his strategies and are disgusted by the actions of the Obama administration when it comes down to government spending, thus giving Herman Cain the advantage on this issue.
America has long been a beacon of prosperity throughout the world. The American dream has been attained by those who were willing to think, work, and sacrifice to achieve it. The role of the federal government should be to encourage economic growth. With the unemployment rate at 9.1% and climbing, the word on everyone's mind is “jobs.” Cain’s approach to getting jobs back into the economy centers around taxes. One phrase Cain has used before is that we must allow businesses to thrive, not just survive. He calls his plan the “999” plan. The plan proposes to lower the business flat tax, the individual flat tax, and the national sales tax all down to nine percent. In the process, it eliminates the payroll tax, the capital gains tax, the death tax, and ends double taxation on dividends. To replace the taxes he is removing, he proposes to implement a federal fair tax where everyone must pay his fair share and lays out the steps of abolishing the IRS. One of the most important taxes that Cain proposes to suspend is taxes on repatriation profits in order to bring the jobs that were taken overseas back into America. Obama continually pushes to raise taxes on the wealthy and middle class who are the real job creators. This is why our unemployment rate has skyrocketed because the job creators are being taxed so heavily. In fact, since Obama took office we have lost 2.5 million jobs. President Obama has completely failed to bring out a plan of how he is going to get jobs back into the economy. This is an extremely bad sign for the President as the American people look to the President to be a leader. In fact, Cain even criticized Obama’s leadership skills saying that he must be a beacon for the American people and so far he has failed at this mission.
America is an exceptional nation. We are also a prosperous nation because of our liberties and our free market system. That’s why people from all over the world want to come to America to create better lives for themselves and their families, because we are truly the land of opportunity. That’s why more and more people pour across our borders illegally. Cain views illegal immigration as a direct attack on our nation’s structure where the respect for the law is downgraded. He resents those who come to America only try to change America to be like the country they left. People coming across the border and being a potential threat due to their criminal record along with the anti-American ideas they bring with them is a barrier to our free market system. Cain runs on the belief that we must secure our borders to prevent any more terrorism that would threaten our country. On the flip side, the President has fought for the exact opposite. When Arizona tried to enforce the illegal immigration laws that already existed, the White House filed a law suit against the state of Arizona in an attempt to stand up for immigrants whether they came into our country legally or not. Obama knows that illegal aliens who are given amnesty will vote for him in the next election. Along with this, the Obama administration has failed to deal with the increasing drug violence due to the lack of border security here in the United States. This is definitely a hindrance to the President’s chances of re-election versus Cain.
President Obama and the liberals in Congress have dismantled the free market health care system and replaced it with health care “deform.” They have passed measures that compromise the sacred patient-doctor relationship, eliminate patient choice, stick a bureaucrat in the examining room, ration care and do nothing to limit frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of health care. In all of these provisions, they made health care more expensive and less accessible for American families they claimed to protect. Herman Cain believes that it’s time to repeal and replace Obamacare with patient-centered, free market reform. He wants to institute legitimate tort reforms that let doctors practice medicine without fear of frivolous lawsuits. Additionally, loosening the restrictions on Health Savings Accounts would help to empower Americans to save and invest their own money to expand their options for health care. Obama’s plan for health care has infuriated the American people. It puts more strain on our economy, increases taxes, and will move jobs out of the US. Attacking Obama’s plan for health care is a good stance for any Republican candidate.
Overall, Herman Cain seems to be the best choice of a candidate to go up against president Obama in a general election. Because the American people are so appalled by his repeated failures on national Security, government spending, job creation and the economy, illegal immigration and health care the American people want a new leader. What matters most is that the polls are beginning to show who the American people want as their new leader. Herman Cain has won the Illinois straw poll, the Florida straw poll, and the Zogby poll. He also just tied with Mitt Romney, who has been the front runner, in a CBS news poll for first place. This is exactly why Herman Cain has the best chance to beat president Obama because the American people want him to be. It’s not only that Cain is such a good candidate, but it’s that Obama has brought his own destruction down upon himself and that destruction comes in the form of a democratic election. The same kind of election that got him into office.
If we were to remove our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan while still supporting Israel, we would gain two things. Being that we have been one of the few nations to support Israel in their time of need, they would be the only one willing to return that support by helping the United States protect its interests in the Middle East. Protectively taking a non-aggressive stance, we would be able to strengthen our support of Israel and better combat the Iranian threat. Iran must be dealt with. By helping Israel, wanting our support in the first place, it will not only help us with the Iranian threat, but would still help us in the Middle East. While we would not be jeopardizing our troops' lives anymore, we would still have a strong ally in the Middle East we can use to keep the terrorist threat in check. This would allow us to keep an eye on the oil and not allow it to fall into the terrorists' hands. Being that our troops would no longer be in the area, Iran might not feel so threatened. The urgency for limitless nuclear power might not seem to be as immediate a need to them. If so, it would cause them to slow down the rate at which they are burning money in their nuclear firehouse. Also we would be able to support Israel in combating Iran’s nuclear program. Should Israel need to bomb Iran's power facilities, the U.S. would be better able to concentrate our supplies toward helping Israel achieve their goal.
