After watching the Presidential debate this past Tuesday between hopeful Mitt Romney and incumbent, President Obama, I thought the very first question posed by Jeremy Epstein was a good opener. Twenty-year-old Jeremy asked, “Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?”

Mitt Romney, being the first to answer, responded by citing an example of a Pennsylvania graduate’s dilemma of not only working 3 part-time jobs, can’t pay her college loans back and barely affords to live on her own. Romney knows this nationwide problem all too well, as does President Obama. Romney’s solution to this problem is to first, make college more affordable to students, and second, to grow the economy again so that college students will have confidence in finding jobs after graduation. Romney emphatically stated, “…So more debt and less jobs. I'm going to change that. I know what it takes to create good jobs again. I know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity you deserve. And kids across this country are going to recognize, we're bringing back an economy.”

Cartoon by Bryant Arnold*

President Obama echoed Governor Romney’s initial sentiments by adding, “Jeremy, first of all, your future is bright. And the fact that you're making an investment in higher education is critical. Not just to you, but to the entire nation. Now, the most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating jobs in this country. But not just jobs, good-paying jobs. Ones that can support a family.” The President continued by adding that he wants to see everyone get a great education and his administration has “worked hard to make sure that student loans are available for folks like you,” but he continued, “…I also wants to make sure that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs of the future.”


We all know that the unemployment rate is at an all-time high with 23 million struggling to find work. Mitt Romney proposes a “five-point” plan that he feels strongly will grow the economy again. President Obama was quick to dismiss Romney’s five-point plan, relabeling it a “one-point” plan, stating, “…and that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.”
In my view, a lot rides on the winner being true to his promises to grow this economy again so that not only will we see more jobs available for graduates and the unemployed, but that employers who were once proud to hire, promote, give substantial raises and bonuses, will be able resume those incentives, without hurting their businesses. In turn, this will retain employees and boost morale.
I’m grateful to have a job in this economy. It seems the new definition of a raise or a bonus is that you get to keep your job. However, I remain ever-hopeful—as has always been the American way—that our leaders in power will live true to their promises. If they do, we will see better times ahead. That’s why I believe this election is crucial and the pinnacle that will turn this nation around for the good - choosing the right candidate, or the bad - choosing the wrong candidate. As conscientious voters, one false move and we will find ourselves in such turmoil, that many of us may resort to leaving the United States altogether.

The future of employee engagement and talent retention becomes an even greater challenge should the wrong candidate win the election and continue to cripple our nation with more debt and deceit.
Finally, I want to conclude by saying I'm hoping the American people are smart enough to select a candidate given his or her proven credentials and not on physical attractiveness or pompous personality. WE WANT RESULTS! Not age-old political claptrap.

http://www.cartoonaday.com/obama-vs-romney-2012-presidential-race-cartoon/