While reading the news and opinion pages, I am infused with a great feeling of hope. A feeling that Romney can actually win this thing and, though he is not the ideal candidate, he represents a distinct departure from the semi-Constitutional, socialist-leaning administration of Barack Hussein Obama. Is he an unknown quantity? Far less so than Obama, whom the MSM did not properly vet way back when. Once they saw a black man running for President and that he was “clean and articulate” (according to Joe Biden), he quickly became their darling. He caused young voters to swoon in the woozy promise of hope and change. He caused a loudmouthed, combative, wannabe journalist to experience a tingle in his leg; what was that really all about, Chris? Obama mesmerized and hypnotized those in search of a political messiah; someone to lead us out of the “cowboy wilderness” of George W. Bush. Obama was the right man for the right time with just the right message and charisma. He was to lead us into a new post-racial era of hope and change. Liberals went weak in the knees at the thought of electing the first black president. What better way to assuage their long-standing guilt?

Those of us from Chicago, however, knew him as a very liberal neophyte who was charming and gave a good speech, but had no record to speak of … either as a state senator and later, as a US Senator. He was absent almost as much as he bothered to show up in the Senate chamber. He was a product of the powerful Chicago Democratic machine with no background and no experience besides his community organizing. And what is a community organizer any way? A rabble rouser? An activist? How do you measure his performance? And against what standard? And who has written the book for community organizers? Oh, yes, I remember now … Saul Alinsky, wasn’t it? My friend and I drank endless cups of coffee while pondering how this empty suit might actually become President. To get elected he actually fooled all the people at just the right time.

He had no record or experience to run on then and he has no record to run on now. Is Gitmo closed? No. Has Khalid Sheikh Muhammed been in a court room lately? No. Did we win in Afghanistan and depart as heroes? No. Did we emerge from Iraq victorious? No. With nothing accomplished that he can tout, we’ve seen one of the most vicious negative campaigns in history.

Oh, but we do have $16 trillion in debt, 23 million people without jobs or under-employed, and a one party established, government-run healthcare program that still leaves millions uncovered. Can you say “governing against the will of the people?”

For those of you who don’t like Mitt Romney for whatever reason, I think you have to admit one simple fact about this election: we definitely know what we’re getting with Obama … more uncontrolled spending (hell, it’s only money – we’ll print more!), less jobs, more inflation, higher gas prices, more czars. Maybe you are okay with that and with more big government, because that is the essence of Obama and the Democrat party; I am not okay with that. The Democrat party sees the Constitution as a hindrance to “proper” governance. I believe Democrats stand in the way of growth, the expansion of opportunity and the realization of the American dream. They just want us all living somewhere in their entitlement plantation.

With Romney, as with any candidate, we can’t be 100% sure what he’ll do. After all, death and taxes are the only things we are materially assured of. However, we can be reasonably sure his administration will be different in tone and character from the current one. We know that Romney has had a very enviable business career and he didn’t do too badly running the Olympics or as governor of Massachusetts, either. Was Mitt my first choice as a candidate? Not really. It wasn’t until the first debate that he stepped forward confidently and showed us who he was. He couldn’t have drawn a clearer contrast between himself and President Obama. As someone with private sector business experience, he is someone I can relate to. He is certainly not the perfect candidate, but he’s lived a clean and pretty transparent life, unlike our current President. I think I’ll cast my lot with the new guy because I like his values, his ideas and, as Dennis Miller pointedly says, I like the cut of his jib.