Unfortunately so.........

One of the crucial question as we all head into the election of 2012 is this: Is it because President Obama is Black?

The answer to this repeatedly nagging query is," Yes, unfortunately so."

This nagging thought was given credit when the republicans announced on the very first day of Obama"s presidency that their main aim was to make him a one-term president!

Thereafter, he has faced nothing but stiff opposition on most, if not all, of his proposed plans.

The list is familiar to all of us whether it was the big issue of debt or "Obamacare" or giving money to schools! Take for example the American Jobs Act which the President proposed and the Congress passed one element of his plan — an extension of the payroll tax cut — but blocked other proposals, which included money for states and local government to hire more teachers and federal funds to repair schools.

Another incident and even more stark was when he proposed his new health care reform which many dubbed as "Obamacare".

Instead of relying on competition among insurance companies to hold down costs, he tried to take the path of regulation in hopes of succeeding in keeping costs down.His new law included a number of provisions designed to slow down the increase in healthcare costs both for Medicare and private health plans.As a backstop, the law created the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a government-appointed panel that has the authority to further cut payments to providers if Medicare spending increases too rapidly.


It is strongly believed that billions of dollars could be saved if doctors and hospitals would simply adopt the best practices already in use in some parts of the country.Yet , this continues to face stiff opposition to the point that the common man can be confused on who is saying the right thing or what really are the facts because we cannot forget that to begin with Obama and Romney had quite similar stands on healthcare issues. Romney's biggest legislative achievement as governor was a law guaranteeing health coverage for all Massachusetts residents. That very law became the model for Obama's national health plan.


But surprisingly so, now,with his party firmly opposed to Obama's plan, Romney no longer wants to pursue

the Massachusetts model. Instead, he has embraced ideas pushed by congressional conservatives.



And  we wonder why, because it is born from his own model of Massachusetts.Which brings me back to the question, " Would it have been different if President Obama was not Black?"

What is the logic behind opposing something you were proposing and even implementing yourself a while back? Don't mock those of us who say then that you, Gov. Romney, are just a puppet in the hands of your party and your corporate buddies. Do you really expect us to trust you here ? Would you and your party have treated the same laws and same proposals in a different light if they had been proposed by , say, Clinton?!

Unfortunately so, it has been about race all along, when it should have been what is best for the country and the citizens of this great country, especially one that is known as the land of opportunity where nothing else matters and hard work inevitably leads to success.






For more on the issue of race in politics http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/poll-shows-widening-racial-gap-in-presidential-contest/2012