By now you've probably seen the news: The amazing -- and amazingly negative -- Republican race for president is all but over. Mitt Romney is almost certainly our opponent in this election.
That means America will have a very clear choice come November.
The President believes that this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and that without a strong and thriving middle class, we'll never have the growth we need.
That's why he's fighting for an economy rooted in our fundamental values -- one in which Americans can not only find work, but where folks who work hard can get ahead, responsibility is rewarded, and everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street, plays by the same rules.
He's fighting for an economy that's built to last, with a genuine and sustained commitment to education and training, advanced manufacturing, and homegrown, American energy.
He's fighting for a country in which every child has a chance, and every American, after a lifetime of work, can count on retiring with dignity and security.
And he's fighting to ensure that the responsibility for delivering on that future is broadly shared, which means ending the budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy that add to our deficits and crowd out the very investments we need to grow.
Mitt Romney has a different, and frighteningly familiar, view.
He thinks you grow our economy from the top down.
He'd take us back to an economy based on outsourcing, risky financial schemes, and massive tax cuts for the wealthy. He'd return to the policy of allowing Wall Street, Big Oil, and other special interests to write their own rules.
But that's not all. Below are five other things that should give Americans pause.
Forward this email -- and if you're ready for this fight, say you're in.
1. Romney's positions are the most radically anti-women of any candidate in a generation: He supports banning all abortions, backed a so-called "personhood" amendment that could make certain forms of birth control illegal, and says he would "get rid of" federal funding for Planned Parenthood that provides preventive services like cancer screenings for millions of women.
2. Romney would repeal Obamacare. Insurance companies would once again be allowed to run up premiums, unjustifiably deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, drop patients when they get sick, discriminate against women by charging them more for coverage than men, and spend more of your premium dollars on CEO profits and bonuses instead of your actual health care.
3. Romney is a risk when it comes to foreign policy and national security. On many of these questions, he has shifted his position for political reasons, even within the same campaign. His only clear commitment is to endless wars: He has no plan to end the war in Afghanistan and would leave our troops there indefinitely. He called the President's decision to bring our troops home from Iraq by last Christmas "tragic."
4. Despite the lessons of recent history, Romney would double down on the disastrous tax policies that handed windfalls to the wealthy, but stacked the deck against the middle class. Under Romney, millionaires and billionaires would get a $250,000 tax cut, while families with kids making less than $40,000 a year would, on average, actually see their taxes go up. To the surprise of no one, Romney also opposes the Buffett Rule. He would allow millionaires to continue to take advantage of loopholes and special deals that often allow them to pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. And he supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
5. Romney would end Medicare as we know it -- replacing it with a voucher scheme that would drive profits for insurance companies by forcing seniors to purchase private insurance, paying whatever costs a voucher wouldn't cover out of their own limited budgets.
Romney and his special-interest allies are going to spend the next seven months trying to deny, downplay, or hide these facts from voters. It's on us to speak the truth.
So print these out, post them on your fridge, and share them on Facebook. Send this list around to friends who are on the fence.
When and if your mother-in-law, or cousin, or best friend claims that Romney is "moderate," you need to know what to say.
You are the President's voice out there, and I can't stress enough how you will be the difference between voters hearing our message or not. The more Americans learn about Mitt Romney, the less they like him, and the less they trust him.
Are you ready? If yes, say so:
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If people know the truth about Mitt Romney and President Obama, who they are, and their very different plans for this country, there's no way we can lose this thing.
This race is on.
Let's go,
Messina
Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
P.S. -- We put together a video highlighting some of Romney's severely conservative positions -- which we all need to remember as we head into the general election. Take a look, and make sure your friends see it too.
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