My decision is based on a simple set of reasons, really. President Obama has proven a terribly weak leader and a total failure at leading or manipulating or in any way achieving progress within the Congress. That's an amazing statement when he had the majority for two years of his three and one-half in office. Yes, I know the Republicans blocked much of what he wanted to do because his party didn't have a cloture-proof majority in the Senate. But other presidents accomplished far more with less political "ammunition" than Obama had for at least half his first term.

With that as background, I have reached the conclusion that the bitter hatred for Obama by the Republicans will not abate if he wins a second term, but will probably even worsen. A dysfunctional Congress will become even more bitterly divided, very likely dragging the U.S. population with them to the far right and far left sides of social and fiscal ideology. The newfound ability of moneyed interests to continue the negative/attack ad advertising campaign enabled by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision could very well continue well beyond the actual election of a president and new Congress. Maybe it's an overstatement, but our very culture potentially could be threatened.

Romney is a new face, one who has proven to have some capability to navigate in a hostile political atmosphere. While he claims to be a far right conservative, much of his personal and political history says otherwise. I would be hopeful that like many politicians before him, he is saying what he thinks is necessary to appeal to enough voters to get elected, particularly those on the far right fringe of the Republican Party. There is some evidence of that in his rather dramatic and surprising change of positions on important issues. If he is elected, I would hope he would quickly veer towards moderation, while attempting to pull both the far left and far right more towards the middle with him to govern the country.

The situation in our national government can't get much worse than it is now, although I think it might if President Obama is re-elected. The GOP can almost certainly not be successful enough to gain the key cloture-proof majority in the Senate. So in the worse case scenario, if Romney proves to be yet another weak leader the Democrats would still have to political power, even as a minority in the Senate, to block whatever ultra-conservative legislative agenda the GOP might attempt to push thru the Congress, even if they had the majority in both houses. The situation would be very similar to what happened to Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America". He was successful in pushing a huge number of bills thru the House, most of which died an inglorious death in the Senate because the majority GOP in the Senate couldn't declare cloture.

I'll admit that's a pretty awful reason for voting for a candidate for president. But I'm afraid another four years with Barack Obama in the White House may do more damage to the country than Romney and even a majority GOP in both houses could possibly accomplish. In the worse case scenario, we'll have another chance to elect someone possibly more capable and inclined to lead in 2016.

Buggy, I hope that explains why I've concluded as I have. You may not agree, but I hope it provides a better background when I begin or enter discussions of issues here.