^^^^ Yeah, but to be fair, Obama has not spelled out a single thing about what he wants to do in his second term except, at best, vague generalities. Vague generalities are not better than absolutely nothing.
My state is unlikely to go blue like it barely did last time, so I have the luxury of voting for either of the two major parties, voting LP (Gary Johnson) or going write-in and voting Jill Stein (Green).
I'm frankly torn.
Neither candidate has layed out a vision for this country, either Romney for his first term or Obama in his second, similar to what Ronald Reagan had in 1980 (or hell, even in Reagan's primary challenge in 76) or Clinton's vision in 96. Disagree or agree with either of the former Presidents, they had a vision for America that was clearly communicated. Yes, a lot of the campaign promises get muddled up when it comes to trying to implement them, and some are just gestures. But it gives an insight into what these men care about.
Make fun of Newt Gingrich all you want (I know I did). But the man, for example, had a clear vision on where he'd like to take NASA and space exploration if elected President. But I don't think there's a single subject either man cares about and has a vision for as much as Newt Gingrich has for NASA.
Does Obama have a vision, for example, of what to do in Afghanistan after 2014? Does Romney have a vision on why he'd like to leave the troops there longer, and what their goals would be?
Do either men have a vision on how to speed up judicial nominations to federal benches? We have hundreds of vacant openings for a variety of reasons, and dozens of stalled nominations in the Senate. Most of the people nominated for these jobs aren't hurting for money, but they also can't sit on their thumbs for 3 months while the Senate decides when to make a vote happen. We're losing potential judges to small claims courts, private practice, and private courts and this is something that needs to be fixed (Chief Justice Roberts actually talked about this during one of his confirmation hearings).
What about higher ed? I'm a returning student, and being older now, I qualify for pell grants due to my age. Once I transfer to a university to finish my degree, I'll have to take out loans to cover the cost and that's fine. But these grants right now essentially pay for my tuition, books, etc... I'm open to reforming Pell grants (I don't think it's right giving me a direct refund check. I'd prefer any refund money be in a segregated checking account or pre-paid debit card, for example, that could only be spent on educational expenses such as pens, notebooks, textbooks, etc...) but the drastic cuts Pell grants get in the Ryan budget scare me. I know college isn't the answer for everyone, but the fact is most good jobs that you can make a living on and potentially save some money for retirement/rainy day won't even look at you if you don't have some degree. (Source on an overview of both candidates' views on pell grants:
http://www.usnews.com/education/blo...might-pell-grants-fare-under-obama-and-romney).