A very basic primer on deciding between Romney and Obama in November

In business there is something called “sunk costs” which refers to funds that have been spent and are unrecoverable. At any given point sunk costs are irrelevant to the decisions going forward. An example of this would be a company that has spent a billion dollars building a plant and now has to choose whether or not to spend another billion dollars hiring staff and actually operating the plant. At the point of the decision the only thing that should be relevant to the decision makers is what makes best sense for the firm going forward. Does the company make more money by staffing and operating the plant or by selling it? The decision should be based solely on what’s best going forward, with no sentimental attachment to the billion dollars already spent building the plant.

The key element of sunk costs is recognizing that you can’t change or undo anything that has already happened and therefore the focus of your attention should be what you can do today to impact tomorrow.

The last three years should be looked at as sunk costs… or simply unalterable history. The November election cannot turn back the clock. It can only look at a course for the future.

As such, voters should evaluate Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as a board of directors would if they were seeking to hire a president or CEO to run their organization.

The first thing you’d do is take a cursory look at their resumes. Obama earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia while Romney earned his from BYU. Both men earned graduate degrees at Harvard. On that score you’d have to say that the men were very similar. As for their success as students it is not currently possible to compare the two. Romney graduated in the top 5% of his class at Harvard while Obama has refused to release any of his school transcripts.

Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, taught Constitutional law at Columbia, was elected to the Illinois Senate and then the US Senate. His most important work experience comes from his three years as President of the United States.

Romney worked as a business consultant, founded a private equity firm, managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and served as Governor of Massachusetts for four years.

Finally you might look at their family situations and personal life as you wouldn’t want your new leader embarrassing your organization. Obama is a nondenominational Christian and is by all measures a devoted husband and dedicated father of two little girls. Romney is Mormon, has been married to his wife for 43 years and the couple has raised five boys.

On first blush both men seem to have the basic qualifications necessary to be President. But one needs to look at the experience a bit deeper now.

Barack Obama’s career was fairly unremarkable prior to entering the White House. As such, his best case can be made when looking at his time in office. He was presented with a difficult situation of the American economy in 2009. What has he done? The most obvious thing is that he’s borrowed and spent a great deal of money. Results? Higher unemployment than when he took over. Fewer people are actually working than when he became President. Inflation is 3% higher although the economy is experiencing stagnant, albeit positive, growth; the slowest recovery since the Great Depression. He passed ObamaCare and was subsequently sued by 27 states and the law is in front of the Supreme Court. Osama Bin Laden is dead. American troops are out of Iraq.

You just love those false dichotomies, don’t you. Our country wasn’t founded by people whose minds were trapped by the ends justifies the means fallacy. It was founded by people who would’ve rather died than defile their conscience. That’s where our strength lies, not in panic, but in faith. I intend to give my country an honest opinion of who I think should be running it. That is my sacred duty as a citizen. I am bound by oath to uphold our Constitution, and how I vote is not exempt from that obligation. My ancestors produced William Wallace, and I will not betray that legacy of freedom for either of these deity wannabes.

“The choice to support either Romney or Obama is NOT a “false dichotomy”! It is reality.”

That’s not the false dichotomy I was referring to. Your false dichotomy is the idea that the only possibilities that exist are the ones created for us by our would-be human overlords. That premise denies the reality and the power of God. Kingdoms come and go, but God and your soul go on forever. You can rage against conscience all you like, but in the end, the only real choice we have is to either do what God says we should do, or to reject him in favor of the crisis du jour.

Its a free country. Do what you want. But I still believe in a God who can part the waters of the Red Sea, and make a path where there was none. But even if he doesn’t, he holds me to account for the promises I make, and the duties I owe. If your fear is so deep you can ignore all that, I get that. I’ve been there. I’m not there now. You can do what you like, but I’m taking my stand in this place, at this time, because unlike most of the pols in DC, my oath actually means something to me, and I really don’t have any choice but to honor it.

Well, at that level of “UNcertainty,” the actions of neither can be guaranteed. Obama might have a religious conversion tomorrow afternoon. Or Romney might behave in the WH just as he did in MA. If I were a betting man, I’d put more money on the latter proposition than the former.

Put another way, the only way we can win with either of these guys is for the one who gets into the WH to suddenly become a different person. So unless we get God’s help on this, we’re going to lose either way.

Therefore, if we are going to lose either way, wouldn’t a person be wise to keep his relationship with God intact above all else?

Oh, but wait, that’s not your argument. Your argument is that I should give my blessing to a man who has no problem with the idea of being a god and receiving worship, who actively promotes a false Christ, who has a demonstrated capacity for acting tyrannically over the conscientious objectors to abortion in his state, and who has spent most of his adult life engineering a socialist power grab over healthcare, and that I should do this with my eyes covered and my ears plugged and my hands over my mouth, lest I should singlehandedly cause the reelection of a run-of-the-mill Marxist. Have I got that right?

And I should do all this in violation of my oath to support the Constitution, and in violation of the Scriptures that literally forbid me from supporting such a person?

And how does this help anyone? Would you really have a person defy God because they were worried about blowing the happy ending? Or would you rather risk the loss of a few earthly comforts by doing the right thing and relying God’s blessing to see it through?

We didn’t get to be the great nation we are on our own. We are something of a miracle. We shouldn’t have survived our birth. We shouldn’t have had so many brilliant political thinkers all in one place coming up with a new approach, rooted in divine law, that would stun the world with its ability to foster human freedom. God was with us. God blessed us. God opened the door and no one could shut it.

But what if now, when we face what is a trivial challenge in the eyes of God, what if now we go all weak-kneed like children and in sheer panic sell our birthright as a nation, sell our miracle off at fire-sale prices, just so we can all be relieved The Mighty Obama no longer resides in the WH? Do you really think that will please the Almighty? Will he be happy with our lack of faith in Him? How long can he continue to bless us while we shun his power and his willingness to use that power to help us?

For me, there is no happy ending if I come through all this, the nation is saved, the world is all perfect, but I’ve ruined it between me and God. That would be the end of my world. I know you want a good outcome, and I don’t hold that against you. But I won’t pay for your happy ending at the cost of my soul.

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