President Obama currently leads in the 2012 election polls, beating out Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a narrow, yet somewhat significant margin.  In this presidential election, every point counts, because every day the swing states of the country change their opinion.

The most recent news regarding Mitt Romney involved him at a supposedly closed-door convention, stating that he has given up hope for winning the votes of the 47 percent of Americans who “do not pay Federal Income taxes.”

This controversial statement was hidden in the muck of many others in a leaked video of his 30-minute speech.  Romney labeled this portion of citizens as “entitled” and “dependent on the government.”

Another disturbing portion of this video was how he responded to the question about the potential of a pre-election hostage situation.

“If something of that nature presents itself, I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity,” Romney said.

The average person would consider this leaked video to be detrimental to the Republican nominee’s campaign, yet support for him seems to have gone up.  People are citing his ability to “speak the truth” as their reason for supporting him.

If only he could do that in his actual campaign.

Romney has consistently fabricated information and stretched the truth throughout his Presidential campaign.  He changes his image to fit the ideal Republican thought process, and spends more time attacking opponent Barack Obama’s policies, rather than explaining his political plans.  He has the tendency to change his position on an issue whenever it doesn’t benefit him, and he tries to do anything he can just to get elected.  The man is desperately trying to find traction in this presidential race, and is struggling to find a substantial platform in which he can build upon.

Whether the topic addressed is factual or not is unimportant.  The point is that a man whom is running for president has just alienated and insulted roughly half of the nation by saying that 47% of its population has no responsibility.

Even then, what scares me the most is how fluidly he talked about this, how he got straight to point within minutes- something that I’ve never seen from Romney.  We got to look at the real man behind his conservative and rhetoric platform.

Most of his domestic policies aren’t even financially possible, and he advocates a rather aggressive foreign policy.  His running-mate, Paul Ryan is a man that excels in rhetoric, yet I don’t necessarily agree with the points he’s made in the past.

Perhaps this is why I seem to support Obama much more than the alternative.  I know what kind of President Obama is; he’s run our country for four years now.  While he hasn’t been the most progressive, I believe it’s important to note that our economy is in the upswing.

During Obama’s first term, four million jobs were created, and the Dow Jones average is above 13,000 (about 4,000 more than what it used to be.)

While President Obama’s job growth rate (+.84%) is not better than Clinton’s (+2.60% and +1.60%), Reagan’s (+1.75% and +2.53%) or even Carter’s (2.30%), it is still better than Bush’s (+.51% and -.84%).

I trust Obama to not destroy the economy, but I’m not too sure about Romney yet.  The only time he’s completely been honest and up-front with our country is when he has insulted half of it, and I don’t know how well I can trust him to lead that nation.

 Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Parkway School District.