90 DAYS, 90 REASONS

REASON 71: Obama understands that education and healthcare are the foundations of a strong economy.

I will vote for Barack Obama for three reasons:

1. He has a vastly superior plan to get millions more Americans health insurance. Romney admits that his plan will deny coverage to millions, despite successfully implementing “Romneycare” as governor of Massachusetts. Romney now suggests that insurance should be left up to individual states, as though cancer in Colorado is less financially devastating than it is in North Carolina. This alone highlights a devastating leadership vacuum from Romney. So no thanks. I have kids. And a body, which might get sick one day. I also have a wife, who happens to be a woman. Watching her bring two children into this world has alerted me to a host of medical problems that healthy women regularly face—problems that necessitate a better healthcare solution in this country. And the Affordable Care Act is the beginning of that solution.

2. Obama has a stronger and wider-reaching plan to improve our education system: the thing that makes America go. What will improve our competitiveness with China over the next five, ten, or twenty years? A temporary tax cut on the capital gains of a Bain Capital board member’s grandson’s trust fund or an investment in Pittsburgh public schools today?

3. Whoever is elected will appoint Supreme Court justices. Three of the current justices are in their late seventies and will soon retire. Obama nominated two Supreme Court justices in his first term. Both made decisions that oppose Romney's stated intent for the nation, including the preservation of the Affordable Care Act. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor, then Obama’s only appointee, also dissented when the Court decided in favor of Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission. This has allowed record-smashing sums of corporate cash to poison the campaign landscape. I respectfully disagree with Governor Romney that “corporations are people.” Corporations are made up of people, and I believe that if we take care of people’s concerns first, the corporations will still continue to thrive.

Healthcare and education are far more important to our country's future economic strength than any other issues. Why? Because America is made of Americans. Educate them, make it impossible for their kids' leukemia to bankrupt them, and they will kick ass here and around the globe. Look up Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Until Americans have their brains nourished and their bodies cared for better, they will not and cannot care about climate change, human rights, energy independence, or foreign affairs. You start with the foundation! Barack Obama is not perfect, but considering the Affordable Care Act, his education plans, and the looming appointment of more Supreme Court justices, it is both fair and accurate to say that he is monstrously, shockingly more qualified to be the president of this nation I love so very much.

—Rob Delaney
Los Angeles, California

90 DAYS, 90 REASONS

THANK YOU, AMERICAN VOTERS.