Political polls throughout various sites on the web show a fairly close presidential race.  Election day for our 45th President will take place on November 6, between current President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney (R-Mass).

To help with the decision, we have compiled a list of both candidates highlighting their

source: gallup.com

stance on  each of the most relevant issues: health care, foreign policies, the environment and much more according to the info obtained from SelectSmart.com and Gallup.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold office. As of this writing, this is where he stands on the issues that most matter to you:

Foreign Policy/War Issues

• The Obama Administration advocates a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a state Senator, he spoke out against the Iraq War and he has long favored a phased withdrawal.

“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and if Pakistan President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

 

Security/Liberties

“Waterboarding is torture. It’s contrary to America’s traditions. It’s contrary to our ideals. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we operate. We don’t need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism, and we did the right thing by ending that practice.”
President Obama

Waterboarding is an act of torture in which the subject is immobilized and water is poured on to his/her face causing the captive person to experience a drowning sensation.

• On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed a bill that reauthorized key elements of the Patriot Act. The bill called for a four-year renewal of some of the most controversial provisions of the surveillance legislation. As a Senator, he voted against bills to reauthorize the Patriot Act.

“Let me be clear: This compromise is not as good as the Senate version of the bill, nor is it as good as the SAFE Act that I have co-sponsored. I suspect the vast majority of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle feel the same way, but, it’s still better than what the House originally proposed. This compromise does modestly improve the Patriot Act by strengthening civil liberties protections without sacrificing the tools that law enforcement needs to keep us safe.”
President Obama – February 16, 2006

• President Obama signed the NDAA Act into law on New Year’s Eve 2011.

Stem Cell Research

• Supports federally funded stem cell research.

• Announced that he supports same-sex marriage on May 9, 2012. President Obama announced his opposition to a California ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriages. Then, in  a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club read at the group’s annual Pride Breakfast in San Francisco, he supported extending ‘fully equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples under both state and federal law, and that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.’

The Budget

• Supports Stimulus Plan which he proposed. President Obama voted against the most recent effort to raise the national debt limit. Nearly $4 trillion of the national debt is now held by foreign governments. Our national debt and annual budget deficits effectively tax all Americans by adding to the amount of interest paid to service U.S. borrowing. President Obama supported the interests of the National Taxpayers Union 6 percent in 2005. In 2007 National Taxpayers Union gave him a grade of an F.

As of this writing, the USA National Debt is $15,770,678,340,500,000.

Debt per citizen: $50,000.

Debt per tax payer: $139,000.

Pro Life v. Pro Choice

• President Obama is Pro Choice.

The Death Penalty

• Obama says the death penalty “does little to deter crime,” but he supports it for cases in which “the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage.” As a state Senator, he worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

Weed

• The Obama Administration opposes legalization of recreational or medical marijuana.

Gun Control

• President Obama supported the interests of the Gun Owners of America 0 percent in 2005. Based on lifetime voting records on gun issues and the results of a questionnaire sent to all state legislative candidates in 2004, the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund assigned President Obama a grade of an F with regards to his views on the rights Americans have to bear arms.

Minimum Wage

• He has voted for increases on the minimum wage.

Health Care and Prescription Medications

“Too many hard-working Americans cannot afford their medical bills, and health-related issues are the number one cause for personal bankruptcy. Promoting affordable, accessible, and high-quality health care is a priority for Senator Obama.”                      
Campaign site

“To help lower the cost of prescription drugs, Senator Obama has supported efforts to allow American seniors to purchase prescription drugs in Canada and bring them back to the U.S. He also has supported giving Medicare the ability to negotiate lower drug prices.”                                                                                                                   
Senate site

• President Obama passed the ObamaCare Legislation in 2010 which allows health care coverage options to those who were previously ineligible due to pre-existing conditions and/or high premiums.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, referred to as ObamaCare, is a United States federal statute that requires individuals not covered by employer or government-sponsored insurance plans to maintain minimal essential health insurance coverage or pay a penalty unless exempted for religious beliefs or financial hardship. The Act also reforms certain aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs to increase insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expand access of insurance to 30 million Americans and increase projected national medical spending, while lowering projected Medicare spending.

The Environment

• President Obama supported the interests of the American Wilderness Coalition, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and the League of Conservation Voters. He also supports and is prioritizing the building of the Keystone Pipeline.

The Keystone Pipeline is an underground pipeline system that will be used to transport synthetic crude oil from Canada to multiple destinations in the United States.

• According to many papers, President Obama has been widely criticized for his actions, or lack of, during the disastrous Gulf Oil Spill, as well as stonewalling full disclosure of the events and its causes to the public.

Immigration Issues

• President Obama has voted in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Education

• President Obama opposes vouchers.

An Education Voucher is a certificate issued by the government, which parents can apply toward tuition at a private school rather than at the state school to which the student is assigned.

The Internet Controversy

• President Obama strongly supports Net Neutrality.

Click here for more info on this issue.

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY

Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts, and here is his stance on the issues that matter to you:

Foreign Policy/War Issues

“I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours [to launch military strikes against Al Qaeda] … I don’t think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort. My administration would also remain focused on stopping the financial and weapons flows to Hamas and Hezbollah, insist that the Palestinians abandon terror and recognize Israel’s right to exist, as well as actively work towards a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict where Israelis and Palestinians can each live in security and dignity.”

• While Romney supported the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and backed President George W. Bush’s troop increase, he has repeatedly said the post-invasion period was “mismanaged with a lack of preparation for the insurgency and adequate planning for a government handover.”

Security/Liberties

• Governor Romney suggested wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students.
• He wants the Patriot Act extended, and favors waterboarding of terrorism suspects considering it a method of “enhanced interrogation.”

Stem Cell Research

• He has vetoed a stem cell research bill.

“Mitt Romney defended his opposition to embryonic stem cell research despite the fact that his wife suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that some scientists believe could be cured with stem cells. He is confident that existing stem cell lines and adult stem cells have just as great scientific promise.”

Same Sex Issues

• Governor Romney has supported gay partnership recognition, but opposes civil unions and same sex marriage.

The Budget

• Governor Romney believes that lowering taxes, like Bush tax cuts, grows the economy.
• The GOP lawmakers gathered two days after voting unanimously against a White House-backed Economic Stimulus Bill, and Governor Romney praised them for their opposition.

“The $819 billion measure that passed the Democratic-controlled House was a plan to spend and borrow with reckless abandon. The Federal government must stop its borrowing and spending binge. The debt is a burden on our economy, our currency, our foreign policy and our future. This is beyond pork barrel spending. We must address entitlement programs – not just to save money – but to give Americans confidence in their future.” Governor Romney

Pro Life v. Pro Choice

• He has moved from being a Pro-Choice Massachusetts governor to a Pro-Life presidential candidate.

The Death Penalty

• Governor Mitt Romney supports Capital Punishment.

Weed

• Governor Romney has said things in the past that indicate he’s not as opposed to the issue as one might expect a Mormon, conservative Republican to be. At the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy summit in Boston in 2003, he wondered aloud why medical marijuana couldn’t be treated like any other potential pharmaceutical.

Gun Control

• As a former advocate of gun control, Governor Romney during his 1994 run for the Senate backed measures the gun-rights group opposed, such as a five-day waiting period on gun sales and a ban on certain assault weapons.

Minimum Wage

• He has rejected plans to raise the state minimum wage to $8 an hour over two years, angering Democratic lawmakers and advocates who accused him of abandoning a 2002 campaign pledge to significantly boost the pay of low-wage workers.

Health Care and Prescription Medications

“The health of our nation can be improved by extending health insurance to all Americans, not through a government program or new taxes, but through market reforms.”

• Prescription drugs: He noted that President Bush:

” … wanted to bring prescription coverage to seniors. He got that done, that’s huge … It has with it a financial burden which is very large. I don’t imagine that that was what he was aiming for when he thought about this during his campaign. I would have hoped to do it differently, I would have hoped to include within the additional prescription benefits certain reforms to Medicaid, Medicare, and our entire health care system to be able to pay for a very helpful prescription drug benefit.” Governor Romney

The Environment

“If climate change is happening, the actions we take will help. If climate change is largely caused by human action, this will really help. If we learn decades from now that climate change isn’t happening, these actions will still help our economy, our quality of life, and the quality of our environment … I’m not a scientist. I read one book over the Summer that said: ‘Gee, global warming is happening for reasons unrelated to human participation,’ and other reports, far more, indicate: ‘No no, it’s very much driven by humans.’ Well, I don’t know. Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah. I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans … What I’m not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.” Governor Romney

Immigration Issues

• Governor Romney wants to reform the current immigration laws to secure our borders, implement a mandatory bio-metrically enabled, tamper proof documentation and employment verification system, and increase legal immigration into America.
• He mostly opposes amnesty/permanent legalization for illegal aliens.
• He opposes temporary legalization for illegal aliens as guest workers:

“Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law is the direct result of Washington’s failure to secure the border and to protect the lives and liberties of our citizens. It is my hope that the law will be implemented with care and caution not to single out individuals based upon their ethnicity.” Governor Romney

Education

• Governor Romney supports vouchers.

“If we are going to compete in the global economy, we have to set our education goals higher.” Governor Romney

The Internet Controversy