As one of those registered Democrats aged 18-30 years old who voted for Obama in 2008, I will not vote for him in 2012. Here is why:
1. Lack of Priorities
I voted for Obama because I thought he would turn the Bush Recession into a boom. Nope, instead Obama's stimulus was a payback to the environmental groups, teacher's unions, trial attorneys, public employee unions, and other liberal leaning interest groups who voted as a bloc for him. Furthermore, after the stimulus he spent a year dicking around with healthcare reform, which is viewed by my private employer and those of my friends as doing nothing but raising healthcare costs on the private sector. Regarding financial reform, Obama has let "too big too fail" to persist.
2. Obama's Hubris
If you think LeBron has an ego, Obama has a better reason to have a larger ego. From every speech I see, Obama has himself convinced that he is living history, a messiah figure, and will go down as one of the top 5 US Presidents along with Washington and Lincoln. I do not respect this, Bush may have been arrogant and single-minded, but Obama's hubris is completely and utterly disgusting.
3. Foreign Policy
We went from the cowboy in Bush to the pathetic apologist. No US President should or ever feel the need to apologize for America's foreign policy. American Exceptionalism is just that, America as a nation of immigrants in a world where past empires have conquered, pillaged raped, sowed salt in Carthaginian lands, is better than those that came before it. Natve Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians have legitimate beefs with American colonization and forced assimilation, but besides two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, collateral damage in the Middle East, and the use of napalm during the Vietnam War, America has been a far more decent empire than the British, French, Romans, Babylonians, Mongols, Greeks, and on.
Obama just does not get this and apologizes for not having the same opinion as some radical cleric in the Middle East. Obama should never apologize whenever himself or his predecessor has taken action to protect American interests be it exporting Democracy via preemptive warfare or using nations with dictators as an excuse to shore up some oil reserves. America is a strong nation with the will to throw it's strength around. The alternative, the much vaunted United Nations does not have a sterling track record itself other than being a voice box for those with a beeft against the US.
