#dear mitt romney...

call-it-kizmet:

…my family owes our futures to him.

His health insurance reforms saved my dad’s life when he had an untimely stroke after he was unemployed, and without health insurance. We were able to extend his coverage because of his work on COBRA. He’s going to college now on financial aid, also an Obama investment. My mother had two degrees, but after having children, she found that she couldn’t get a job with her education. She’s supported by Obama’s reeducation funding for people in her situation.

graceyu:

Mr. Romney,

if I seriously believed that you thought flattened income tax would lower the deficit and be fairer to the middle class - that you thought getting rid of Planned Parenthood wasn't a pointless, bigoted attack on women's health and reproductive rights - that you thought boosting defense spending and cutting crucial social welfare programs would really make our country safer and more prosperous - or that you thought throwing vouchers at Medicare would give seniors more comprehensive health care coverage - then maybe I could respect your opinions.  I wouldn't agree with you, but I could respect you.

But all available data - and a little experiment called Reaganomics - shows that your proposals hurt women and students, increase the wealth divide in this country, destabilize the most vulnerable members of our society, and don't do a damn thing to make us more productive, safer, or healthier.  Either you're out of touch with reality, or you've forsaken integrity for the vote of people who would rather shoot at imaginary threats than do the tough work of solving real issues.

I'm voting for President Obama because I respect him, and when he's asked to defend his policies, he does so with honest conviction and actual facts.  I worked as a US Senate Page when I was 16, and saw more integrity out of that man in five months than in a year of GOP debates.  He's shown his ability to compromise and work across the aisle instead of relentlessly demanding everyone conform to his ideology.  And he talks to the nation like adults.  He doesn't condescend to us, he doesn't try to dumb it down so we don't feel threatened by a seriously smart guy, and he doesn't engage in pointless blame games about who trashed the economy he's been holding together.  He works hard. He doesn't make a big deal out of it.

I believe that Barack Obama makes his promises sincerely and takes the office of President of the Unites States to mean just that - the entire country.  Not only the people wealthy and influential enough to participate in politics.  Not even just the people who voted for him.  Everyone.  I'm voting for the guy who backs up his decisions with data and his promises with results, and the one I can believe really wants to do some good for all our sakes.

tl;dr Dude, I'm only a junior Statistics major, and even I can tell when the scales on your graphs have been adjusted to make your data look good.  And I know Obama's aren't because I've had to carry them around and set them up and stare at them for hours.  Seriously, man, awkward.

Sincerely,

Andy:

To quote the always gracious Leslie Knope....

First of all, "Mitt". Quite a unique name really; I've never heard of "Mitt".

Stacey Y.: