by Joe Kirkpatrick

Obama now has the lowest approval rating since he became President. In my opinion, for the best interest of our country, Obama should not be elected in 2012. Now, before you conservatives start saying "amen," and you liberals start saying "it's the Republicans fault - they won't work with him," hear me out.

I am a registered Republican, but also a realist. George W. Bush left this country in terrible shape. The snowball was already rapidly rolling down the hill before Obama ever took office. The Republicans have stone walled him from day one. Even Senator Lamar Alexander evidently has recognized this as he recently resigned from his powerful position of Republican Conference Chairman. He did this so he can attempt to get some cooperation across the isle between Republican and Democrats. While the Democrats and Republicans have played the blame game, the economy continues to tank. I have experienced this first hand: In September, one mutual fund I hold started the month at $39,000, and at the end of the month had dropped to $32,000, due to the current economic fear. The credit rating of the United States was recently degraded for the first time in the history of the country.

It doesn't matter whether I think Obama is a good guy or bad - that's irrelevant. What I do think is whether it is his fault or not, he is not capable of doing the job for which he was elected. And yes, I think a large part, if not all of the Republican caucus is hell bent on making him fail. However, we have to elect someone else, because our country cannot stand another four years of this gridlock.

Who should be elected? That is a good question. Who is electable against Obama? I think Herman Cain is the only one who is. Why is he the only one? For a Republican to be elected over Obama, the candidate will have to get at least some of the African-American vote. No other Republican candidate can do that. Unlike the white population, the African-American community has a successful history of banding together for a cause. In the last election, a record number of new African-American voters registered so they could vote for someone of their own race. White voters who are not registered will not do that.

Herman Cain has a very good platform, and at the time I am writing this, is the current front runner among the Republican candidates. In the past, he was a very successful CEO of Godfathers Pizza, and has also been on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He has written a syndicated newspaper column for years, and is the host of a talk radio show. His mother was a cleaning woman, and his father a janitor, so the now multi-millionaire has experienced "real life." Herman has a college degree in mathematics and a masters degree in computer science. On the other hand, he was diagnosed in 2006 with stage IV colon cancer that had spread to his liver, and was given only a 30% chance of surviving. Also, he has never held or run for an elected office. Despite that, I feel we should take the chance instead of re-electing a president who for whatever reason cannot get our country back on track.


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