Vote well!

For what its worth...

For issues of economic recovery, health care, re-building national infrastructure, immigration reform, education invigoration, and, yes, for reducing the deficit, Yours for Good Fermentables endorses Barack Obama for re-election as President of the United States of America.

In 2008/2009, stimulus was required to prevent a depression. Recession ensued because not enough stimulus was injected into a demand-poor economy. Today's continuing anemic economy resulted in part as a combination of Obama's political stumbles and, far worse, from opponents' obstructionism. Both should be held to account.

Simpson-Bowles was and is a viable strategy toward reducing the deficit ... but for only after the economy has recovered sufficiently. Governor Romney's deficit plan, a plan seemingly without details except to reduce taxes, is fiscal insanity.

Health cost reduction was a messy half-measure, ironically following the model originally set forth by conservative think tanks and promulgated by Mitt Romney, when governor of Massachusetts. It is a far cry from universal health care. "Promote the general Welfare" was written into the preamble to the Constitution. Don't make it a dirty word.

I'll hold President Obama to these things; I don't trust Mitt Romney with them.

In Virginia, elect Tim Kaine to the U.S. Senate: a good man, a good former Virginia governor, and an essential vote for progress and prosperity in Virginia and the nation.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled beer, for which —as a Virginia brewery owner pointed out in a speech to the Democratic national convention— President Obama has been very good.

Vote well!

**************

• From Obama's website, a look-up form to find one's polling place.
• From WAMU Radio: for those in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, a guide to local candidates and issues on the ballot.
• A national guide to local elections is available at thevoterguide.org. The site might be overwhelmed on election day.