Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/86226
OPINION BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES EDITORIAL Every presidential election, it seems, is framed as a stark choice for the voters, with the two major candidates offering widely di- vergent paths for the nation to follow, should they gain election. In many of those elections — for example, the 1992 contest between Republican President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton — the touted differences were not that great in retrospect. But as Barack Obama seeks re-election to a second term, and is op- posed by Republican Mitt Romney, the prover- bial divergent paths could not be more starkly defined. Mitt Romney was born into an affluent family, educated at the most elite schools and used his family's fortune and connections to launch a career as a venture capitalist. He bought and sold companies — harvesting them for profits, to use his words — and built a fortune that, according to investment banking terminolo- gy, qualifies him as an "ultra-high net worth individual." His lifelong insulation from economic priva- tion and want, and his greater association with ultra-rich individuals such as himself, makes it virtually impossible for him to relate to or empathize with the plight of the poor, or even the struggling middle class. Indeed, by his own statements, he has posited a belief that