Viva Obama!

The president was handed the wheel of a Titanic, which has been “iceberged” by Bush’s eight years of deficits, deceit and privilege, including two wars fought on credit, massive tax reductions for those who needed no help and debt-funded bailouts of GOP-leaning investment banking firms and insurance giants whose business practices had caused a meltdown of the financial and housing markets.

President Obama kept the USS Titanic from sinking by courageous and politically dangerous stimulus programs opposed at every turn by the GOP. The president saved the automobile industry, including the firms which supply and support it with workers whose jobs are still there, and has slowly moved the economy forward. He ended the incursion in Iraq, where we expended the blood of our youth and our treasure for what was probably a family vendetta with no really identifiable gains for this nation.

The president has reduced unemployment and the unemployment taxes of the working class, which mildly stimulates the economy. He has put forth programs, opposed by the GOP, which has helped retain and re-employ teachers, police officers, firefighters and nurses.

The Texas governor, who, along with the GOP regulars, disdains federal stimulus programs, quietly took over $16 billion in such funds one fiscal year and over $29 billion in such funds the next fiscal year to meet his state budget requirements and produce the Texas miracle. These efforts and accomplishments deserve appreciation from the nation benefited by them, even if they do not command respect for the president from people like Mr. Brooks.

Viva Obama!

—Robert D. Allen, Oklahoma City