Opinion

What America needs from its next president

The Issue: The contrast in styles between President Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

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“It’s Bully Versus Nerd” (July 8) is another great column by Michael Goodwin.

Mitt Romney is living and campaigning by a set of rules that he grew up with, while his opponent has turned out to be a typical politician.

President Obama will say and do anything to get the almighty vote — even though we’ve heard for three years that his endless campaigning has nothing to do with the election.

Americans are not stupid, and we all can see through the smokescreen. From the time we heard Obama say “Transform America,” many knew we were in trouble.

Obama’s arrogance and his agenda have clouded his ability to follow through on his promises.

All we get is empty rhetoric and more of the same “blame game.”

Sam King

Manhattan

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Romney is just a shadow of 2008 presidential candidate John McCain.

An energetic, aggressive conservative, a la Newt Gingrich, would be leading by 10 points by now.

Romney has turned this election into a real horse race where the outcome is questionable.

Steve Siker

Parsippany, NJ

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I’m not sure where America stands any longer.

America used to be an independent country, where individuals could decide their destinies and work hard to achieve their dreams.

That so many Americans appear set to vote for Obama again or are on the fence is terrifying.

In the last election, it was so easy to vote for anyone other than George W. Bush. Anyone promising a different reality was a viable option, even someone unvetted.

America was in such a bad place. It was war- weary with a shaky economy, so it was somewhat understandable to take a chance.

We now know whom we got, but is this what America really wants?

I’m not worried for myself, but I am terrified for my children.

Steve Wolfe

Manhattan

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Romney has shown himself to be both a bore and a loser. It is a disgrace that he is trailing Obama.

Unlike a Donald Trump-like candidate, Romney has no flash, fire or anger.

In front of his campaign audiences, he spouts one-liners, waits for the applause and then starts the one-liner cycle again.

I have never heard Romney deliver two or three consecutive paragraphs with passion on the campaign trail.

He doesn’t have the X factor he desperately needs. Up until now, Romney has been a clone of McCain.

He seems to not want to mix it up with the wretched, like Obama. Instead, he wants to be nice, almost to a fault, like Chief Justice John Roberts.

If the current president gets re-elected, it will surely be the end of this great country as we know it.

Jerry Coccoli

Manhattan

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Which presidential candidate has a better plan to turn the economy around? Romney does.

But when you think about it, turning the economy around isn’t a good thing.

We are in a period of recovery. But if Romney were to be elected president, we would go back to the policies of the last Bush administration, and the economy would be in free fall again, losing 750,000 jobs a month.

We don’t want to turn the economy around. We want to stay the course and keep the recovery going.

Marc Perkel

Gilroy, Calif.