Common sense election

Is this November 2012 election really about common sense choices as some liberal pundits put it? If it were so, how come President Obama is just 3 points ahead of Romney in the polls? How could a sitting president who achieved so much in his first term despite taking over a country in its worst financial state not impress voters?
For one, he captured America’s number one enemy and the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden and a host of kingpins in the notorious Al Qaeda terrorist group. And he did so in sweeping victory without a single life lost!
He signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a triumph for women trying to break the glass ceiling.
He passed the most elusive healthcare reform, aka Affordable Care Act (ACA) which all other presidents before had only dreamed of. Just recently upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), ACA or Obamacare as Republicans had successfully labeled it, prohibits insurance companies from dropping people’s coverage when they get sick, or deny coverage of children with pre-existing conditions. It allows children under 26 to continue to be carried under their parents’ health insurance , a measure the President’s Democratic Party came up with to extend coverage to children who get out of college at 21 but could not find a job for a couple more years given the bad economy.
ACA makes sure healthcare insurance providers can’t raise people’s premium without reason nor can they impose limits to lifetime care. ACA entitles people to free preventive treatment and care such as tests like mammograms, etc.
More than 17 million uninsured Americans out of 30m will get their coverage through the expanded MEDICAID but the SCOTUS rejected it and ruled that the federal government should leave this matter up to the individual states.
Despite the unpopular individual mandate provision of ACA, it is the section of the law that puts individual responsibility and accountability in place. With everybody who can afford it chipping in, the cost of insurance will substantially get lower and become more affordable to all. This will rein in the rising health care costs and save Medicare 200 billion by 2016.
Despite his political opponents’ claims Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office. President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%. http://n.pr/i3d7cY
He created more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY
He oversaw a bailout of General Motors that saved at least 1.4 million jobs, and put pressure on the company to change its practices, resulting in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx
He signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which was designed to to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. http://1.usa.gov/gIaNcS
He Ordered 65 executives who took bailout money to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money. http://huff.to/eAi9Qq
He pushed through and got passed Dodd-Frank, one of the largest and most comprehensive Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/hWCPg0 http://bit.ly/geHpcD
Contrary to what Republicans say, President Obama has shown fiscal responsibility since early into his administration. Within days after taking office, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5
He created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1
On his first full day, he froze White House salaries. http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx
He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending. http://www.cio.gov
He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems, and also signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1 http://bit.ly/fz8GAd
Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa
Barack Obama’s long list of accomplishments in his first term as President should put him far ahead of Romney if this election were about common sense. But because Romney is right on Obama’s tail, either he isn’t effectively communicating to the voters or the voters simply don’t have common sense. That, or common sense is not quite common anymore.