Israel Matzav

You know what's at stake, now go out and vote

Tomorrow we go to the polls in the most important election of our lifetimes. If that seems an overstatement, the following should erase any doubt.

RealClearPolitics has the race essentially tied, with Obama leading by a hair. My favorite political guru -- Michael Barone -- has predicted a mini-landslide for Romney.

Whatever the result may be, the stakes could not be higher. Barack Obama's presidency has been totally partisan and intensely ideological. He has pushed everything he could touch radically leftward, changing America's course and the world's. If he is re-elected, that push will continue so effectively that whoever succeeds him in 2017 will discover that most of the damage done is irreparable. Consider just a few of the most important issues that the president -- be it Obama or Romney -- will decide.

Last week, Mad Dog Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate Majority Leader, said that it was "laughable" to think that liberal Senate Dems would work with a president Romney. Unless the Republicans take the Senate, nothing a President Romney offers will even come to a vote unless Romney can find a way around Reid. "Bipartisanship" is as easily corralled as a unicorn.

...

Our lack of economic security -- which is the predicate to national security -- means that rebuilding our national security is proportionally less possible as our economy declines. Obama's agenda forces both our economic security and our military security to diminish.
Our allies know this, as Israel has learned to its pain since Obama declared that he wanted more distance between us and our only ally in the Middle East. Our enemies know this, as Iran has in Obama's utter failure to stop or even slow its march toward obtaining nuclear weapons. Obama is in the process of abdicating America's superpower role in the world.

Few Americans cast their votes on the issues of national security and foreign policy. But consider this: what Obama has done so far can be repaired in the next four years. But if Obama is allowed to continue on his path of abdication and withdrawal, after another four years the world will have changed in ways his successor will find beyond his power to correct.

Iran will have nuclear weapons unless Israel undertakes a war which may cost the Jewish state its very life. Iran, and the other state sponsors of terrorism, will have gained advantages that will allow them to control the Middle East's oil. China will have built its power over the Pacific region to the degree that Japan and Taiwan will come under its thumb. India will be more isolated and Pakistan -- a nuclear-armed state sponsor of terrorism -- will grow in power.

America's military will shrink in size and -- more importantly -- in capability. We won't build the future weapons that will be necessary to deter or defeat our enemies abroad or craft the strategies to deter or defeat the threats we face. If Obama is re-elected, America's enemies will grow stronger as we grow weaker. At the end of Obama's second term, if there is one, the world will have changed to a degree that his successor won't be able to restore America's security for that reason and one more: without a strong and stable economy, American national security will become something we can't afford.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Mitt Romney

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:31 AM