This is an extremely important election year.  Make no mistake about it, your vote for President and Vice President this year is crucial.  President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have my complete support.  Here are some of my reasons:

1.  President Obama entered office in 2009 when our financial system was in a state of abject collapse.  It was a dangerous time for the world, for democracy, and for America.  If the financial system had collapsed, our civilzation would not have remained the same.  If you want to know what that might have looked like, take a look at some of the Hurricane Sandy disaster photos of New York City.  We are a wealthy capitalist society that could not have survived without immediate attention to the economic catastrophe that was created by greed on Wall Street and a dereliction of duty by federal regulatory agencies under the administration of President George W. Bush, and by the complete absence of concern for the public well being that persists to this day among the business people who control the largest financial institutions in the United States.

President Obama stepped in and took action, even before he was sworn in as our President, and acted to save our financial system from the threatened collapse.  The deficit spending that is railed against by his opponents was a necessary further action, required to keep our economy on its feet.  The problem of the economic collapse that began in 2007 was of such immense proportions and so complex that it is not yet understood by the general public.  But one thing the American public should know right now, as they are casting their votes for President and Vice President, is that the economic collapse directly put money in the pockets of the wealthiest members of our society, people who own large amounts of stock and other securities; these people took money from the average American taxpayer because our deposit insurance, necessary to prevent utter economic chaos and calamity, also served to protect the wealth of the wealthiest, people like the Republican candidates for President and Vice President, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who are multimillionaires.  They are multimillionaires and remain so despite the economic collapse because the economic resources of our society were used to preserve that wealth. 

2.  Mitt Romney has run a racist campaign, and if he is rewarded for having done that, our country will likely suffer irreparable harm, both here at home and in the world at large, where racism is no longer an evil tolerated in silence. 

The way Mitt Romney and his surrogates, in particular former New Hampshire Governor John H. Sununu and real estate mogul Donald Trump, have run this presidential campaign, we will be facing dire consequences if Romney manages to win the presidency in 2012. 

Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu has made direct appeals to racisim, suggesting that President Obama is not an American.  Most recently, he has suggested overtly that General Colin Powell's endorsement of President Obama is solely based on race.  I have avoided commenting on the racist tactics of Governor Sununu up to the point because I wanted to avoid repeating the lies.  But the time has come to state facts.  Governor Sununu is appealing to racism and he knows it. 

Donald Trump has persistently harped on the phony allegations that President Obama was not born here.  These are tactics that Mitt Romney himself has adopted and he owns the results.  The defeat of our first African American president under these circumstances would leave Romney and the Republican Party with a country that they will not be able to govern. 

3.   Mitt Romney has not made it clear what he would do as President, and if he is allowed into office under those circumstances, we are in for chaos and disorder.  As a homeowner, my biggest fear is that Romney and Ryan have indicated they intend to give the wealthiest Americans a tax cut while making the home mortgage interest deduction "optional", which means that the home mortgage interest deduction would no longer be a means for average income Americans to maintain home ownership.  To put it bluntly, if you elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and a Republican Congress, within a year or two you may no longer be able to afford your home.

4.  Paul Ryan has consistently supported legislation that would redefine the crime of rape to include only "forcible rape".  The acknowledged purpose behind that legislation is to limit the rights of women to choose whether or not to carry a child. But there is something even worse than that behind Ryan's attempts to redefine rape, because, as we all should know, rape is defined as requiring another person to engage in sexual activity against their will, by force or by intimidation.  So what Ryan is doing by redefining rape is not only making it more difficult to obtain an abortion in cases of rape or incest, he is eliminating the notion that rape by intimidation exists.  The Romney/Ryan campaign has worked with great intensity to avoid public recognition of this policy preference of Mr. Ryan.  You need to look at this carefully.  It is a reason to reject the Romney/Ryan ticket outright.