Because I've Got a Crush on Obama. And you know, logic...

This election season thus far has been dominated by the race for the GOP nomination. And from their debates, TV appearances, and town hall meetings, we know the primary concern of these candidates is to defeat the President in November. The number one issue they are running on is winning. Winning when millions of Americans are losing. We’ve lost jobs, money, opportunities, and some have even lost their lives overseas in the War on Terror. That didn’t all happen in the last four years.
Since taking office, the President has achieved many important things that few give him credit for. He saved the American auto industry in Detroit while others thought we should let it die.  He saved 1.4 million jobs and today Chrysler, GM, and Ford are all once again profitable companies. They’ve paid off their outstanding loans years ahead of schedule and have added 200,000 jobs. In addition, we’ve now seen two straight years of private sector job growth.

No one can deny we are not out of the red yet. Nor are we trying to say that America is back to what it once was prior to the previous Republican administration, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. It took eight years of poor decisions to get us to this crisis that we call the Great Recession and it’s foolish to believe that it could be reversed in only half the time. But we're on the right track. The President has a plan, to rebuild the American middle class.

As college students, we may feel like we’ve been ignored thus far. Education hasn’t been an issue that’s been discussed regularly or at all and the Republican candidates have little more than talking points on their websites. President Obama won the 2008 election thanks in large part to young voters and will not forget what we’ve done for him. In return, he has taken steps to make college more affordable and signed a new law that will make it easier for college students to repay loans. In 2014, new borrowers will pay no more than 10% of their disposable income and allows for any remaining debt after 20 years to be forgiven. Those who take public-service jobs such as teachers, nurses, and members of the armed forces will have their debt forgiven after 10 years assuming their payments are made on time.

The President has also ensured that we can be insured by our parents until the age of 26 under his Affordable Care Act. This is extremely important at a time when thousands of college graduates are having trouble finding full time jobs.

Hey ladies, do you like having your birth control covered? Because the President’s opponents don’t want you to have it. They’d prefer to have states decide how to provide coverage to their citizens. That’s 50 different healthcare plans instead of one that benefits all. In recent months we’ve seen dozens of laws proposed by Republican run states that violate the rights of women and are aimed specifically at making them feel guilty enough to reconsider their choice of abortion. Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana, and even Pennsylvania have all proposed bills that would require a woman seeking an abortion to get an invasive procedure against her wishes and against her doctor’s wishes. This may seem extreme for a party that claims to be against big government intruding on the lives of citizens. The President stands by women and supports their equal rights.

In addition to equal rights for women, President Obama supports equal rights for homosexual citizens. In 2011, he officially repealed the unfair, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that forbid openly gay men and women from serving in the United States Armed Forces. Since it was signed into law in 1993, 13,650 perfectly good soldiers have been dismissed from all branches of the Army and thousands more may have been deterred from joining. The President, like so many our age, younger, and increasingly, older citizens, understands that sexual orientation has no effect on the ability of a person to defend their country.

Though it is still not yet legal for same-sex couples to marry in all states, President Obama has declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This law defines marriage as being strictly between a man and a woman and denies legally married same-sex couples federal recognition. The President was also the first to provide hospital visitation and medical decision making rights to same-sex couples that were previously denied. Imagine your partner was in a terrible accident and you were barred from seeing them in the hospital. Imagine being told that your relationship is less than someone else’s. It’s true that President Obama has not yet come out and fully supported same-sex marriage on a federal level, but many believe, that if reelected, he will. It is time that this country, the land of the free, where everyone gets an equal chance at the pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness, stop picking and choosing which citizens are worthy of those rights.

But hey, if you don’t like equal rights, if you don’t like affordable healthcare coverage, if you don’t want help repaying your school loans, and if, for some reason, you think record highs in the stock market, an increase in gross domestic product, and a recovering economy isn’t what you want for the next four years, by all means vote for one of the Republican candidates. But if you want a better America, an America that values and practices the ideals we preach to other countries, vote to reelect Obama. He's still a pretty awesome guy.