K&R if you feel President Obama Richly Deserves to Be Re-elected!!!

[JohnnyRingo]

142. Though I said I'd end the conversation, let me correct a misconception you have about me

I know from your replies that you just think I'm some Democratic loyalist with no motivation other than blind partisanship. While it's true that I find one party preferable these days, I have personal reasons.

I retired in 2003 after working 30 years at a division of General Motors with the full pension they promised me. Had I not been assured of this pension, I would never have been able to leave. When Delphi went into failure, GM took over my pension as they agreed to in a contract before the subsidiery was spun off. Everything was fine until GM faced a similar fate in 2008.

It was then, as Republicans strengthened their hand in the House and Senate, that republicans like Mitt Romney, Illinois Senator Dan Burton, and California's Darrell Issa began their demands that GM be sent into total bankruptcy hearings to reorganize without the UAW and their contract to members and what they termed "legacy costs". Well, that legacy cost has a face, it's me.

In 2009 when a fresh Barack Obama put together his bailout team under his much reviled "Car Czar", I stared abject poverty right in the eye for the first time in my long life. Had Obama caved to the growing calls from Republicans to let GM "rot on the vine", I would suddenly be left with $0 income and no job prospects for an older man, and that was fine with Mitt Romney.

As we know, Obama did not cave, and my union was given a chair at the restructuring meetings along with other GM creditors. From then on, the matter was in the hands of Judge Drain instead of the Washington politicians, and a decision was made to continue half my pension from the GM pension fund and the other half from the govt PBGC. I lost most of my health care, but I'm surviving now thanks soley to the Democratic president you want to see in a "cold dark cell".

That's why I defend this president in particular. I litterally owe him my pension and my dignity until I reach SS age in a couple years. When I hear someone with a single issue interest call for his ouster, I react. I've read here where various people have called for a single term because gays can't marry yet, Marijuanna is still illegal, or because Gitmo is still open.

Since the GM decision and loans were made, current House Oversight leader Darrell Issa has been bombarding this White House with subpeonas to get his hands on the documents pertaining to the GM pensions. Issa is certain Obama worked behind the scenes with the UAW to assure my pension, and he want to use them to bring him (and me) down. So far, the White House has rebuffed his efforts, but all he needs now is a President Romney to void my pension along with that of tens of thousands of union brothers and sisters across the country.

I know from reading your journal entries and posts that your issue is war. Until we have a president who extracts the US from global conflicts, you will continue your very sincere plight to find someone who will. I understand, I'm anti-war myself, but that's only one issue I use to judge this president's worth. Selfish as it may seem, that he stood up for workers in our time of need is an even bigger one to me.

I have two sons who are single handedly raising my combined six grandchildren without a spouse in the picture. One has a decent job, but $13 an hour only goes so far with three growing sons. Both receive govt food subsidies, and all my grandchildren get discounted or free school lunches. Will a president Romney or Gingrich see to it that these important services are continued? Will my grandchildren be forced to shine shoes and mow lawns so the family can survive? I'm not willing to take that chance just because Obama killed bin Laden. I'm not willing to let voters stay home next year and hand over my family's fate to a Republican president just to teach Obama a lesson about drone attacks.

Instead of blind partisanship, I believe our real differences over Obama involve the issues that drive us. You want world peace, I want to eat and live indoors. I may find reason to be loyal to the Democratic Party these days, but I'm not some partisan hack without morals or a cause. I'm also not alone as many, many millions more are in my well worn shoes with their family's personal fate hanging in the balance next November.