First, a confession: I partially bought into President Obama's "hopey changey" campaign four years ago by endorsing him and voting for him in November '08; however, I now realize that was a mistake and I hereby apologize to my readers.
As we now know, this president isn't really about hope and change, he's about more of the same. So if you're happy with Obamacare, high unemployment, a stagnant economy, unsustainable deficits and a record $16 trillion national debt, President Obama is your candidate. But I'm voting for the real hope and change candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a successful businessman who understands the economy and free-market capitalism, which drives economic growth and creates jobs.
In a recent editorial, the left-leaning Washington Post opined that "Mr. Obama has yet to say how he would solve the immense problems awaiting the next president immediately after Election Day. Until and unless he does the only rationale he can offer the voters is the urgency of stopping the other guys." In other words, because he can't run on his dismal record the president must resort to demonizing the mild-mannered Romney as a vulture capitalist who wants to push your proud granny off a cliff.
"President Obama has never accepted responsibility for his failed economic recovery," American University economics professor Brad Schiller wrote last week in the conservative Washington Times. Schiller, a part-time Lake Tahoe resident, noted that even during the Great Depression the American economy "grew five times faster than during the Obama 'recovery.'" But Obama wants us to move forward with these same failed policies, and continues to blame his travails on former President George W. Bush, who left office in January 2009.
And now, let's move on to congressional and local races: The nasty contest between incumbent U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and his challenger, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, is a race between a very liberal Las Vegas Democrat with a New York accent and a moderately conservative Carson City Republican with a Nevada accent. I'm voting for Heller as well as for another local Republican, Congressman Mark Amodei, who's a shoo-in against Democrat Sam Koepnick, who hasn't even bothered to campaign. These seem to be tough times for Northern Nevada Democrats.
I'm a single-issue voter in the Carson supervisors' races, and am supporting Dennis Johnson and Jim Shirk, the candidates who are most opposed to the budget-busting Nugget Project (CC1). I like Brad Bonkowski but I can't vote for him because he refuses to take a clear position on the Nugget Project. At this point, supervisor candidates must take a position. He can't have it both ways. Shirk's opponent, Supervisor Molly Walt, claims to be "independent," but she isn't because she votes in lockstep with fellow Supervisor Karen Abowd, another Nugget Project cheerleader.
Popular GOP Assemblyman Pete Livermore will prevail against token opposition from virtually invisible Democrat Rich Dunn. I'm also backing Municipal Judge Tom Armstrong. And once again, be sure to vote "No" on CC1, which will raise our sales taxes to build a big new library that we don't want, don't need and can't afford.
• Guy W. Farmer has been a Carson City voter since 1962. These endorsements are not those of the Nevada Appeal.
