上海交通大学：《历史视野下的美国文化 American Culture Under the Historical Perspective》通识课程教学资源（学生论文）蓝捷——历史视野下的美国文化结业论文-

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 千里之堤，毁于蚁穴 论罗姆尼大选败因 Small Mistakes Lead to Irreparable Collapse ------On causes of Romney's failure in the election 机械与动力工程学院 机械动力类 5110209151 蓝捷 中文摘要： 奥巴马于十一月七日成功地将过半数的美国土地染成了蓝色，再次入主白宫。在不见起 色的四年过后，为何美国民众仍然将选票交给了这位黑人总统而不是共和党候选人罗姆尼？ 原因并不在奥巴马有多强势，而在于罗姆尼自己不断地犯错，最终将总统宝座拱手让人。本 文将从税收、创造就业、医保三方面进行分析，看罗姆尼是如何一步步地将自己推入深渊。 关键词：总统大选，败因，税收，创造就业，医保 Abstract: On Nov 11th,Obama successfully dyed over half of American land blue and entered and hosted the White House the second time.After four years with bare improvement,why the American still were willing to vote for the black president but not the Republican candidate Mitt Romney? Analysis will be given on tax,job creating and health care in this paper,to tell the truth that how Romney pushed himself to the abyss step by step. Key words:the presidential election,causes of failure,tax,job creating,health care It is accepted widely that in an ordinary election,involving a stagnant economy and global unrest,coupled with unemployment rate of 7.9%,the typical incumbent president would be at an enormous disadvantage!.However confusing situation occurred this time.Being in such a passive position as mentioned above,President Barack Obama still won votes from most American and defeated his rival,Republican candidate,Mitt Romney,continuing to start his second term.How and why did that happen? Of course the reasons are so various that I cannot list them one by one.However,after watching three presidential debates,I personally consider the change of tax,job creating and healthcare policy as the biggest challenges the two candidates would face,because they are closely bound up with voters'daily life compared with some other aspects such as foreign policy.And what plans the two candidates announced to take to handle the two problems,to a large extreme,had the decisive influence on the voters'choice.So,I will mainly discuss the three policies to tell that the Comments of Jon Steward on Daily Show of 2012.9.25 1

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 1 千里之堤，毁于蚁穴 ——论罗姆尼大选败因 Small Mistakes Lead to Irreparable Collapse ------On causes of Romney’s failure in the election 机械与动力工程学院 机械动力类 5110209151 蓝捷 中文摘要： 奥巴马于十一月七日成功地将过半数的美国土地染成了蓝色，再次入主白宫。在不见起 色的四年过后，为何美国民众仍然将选票交给了这位黑人总统而不是共和党候选人罗姆尼？ 原因并不在奥巴马有多强势，而在于罗姆尼自己不断地犯错，最终将总统宝座拱手让人。本 文将从税收、创造就业、医保三方面进行分析，看罗姆尼是如何一步步地将自己推入深渊。 关键词：总统大选，败因，税收，创造就业，医保 Abstract： On Nov 11 th , Obama successfully dyed over half of American land blue and entered and hosted the White House the second time. After four years with bare improvement, why the American still were willing to vote for the black president but not the Republican candidate Mitt Romney? Analysis will be given on tax, job creating and health care in this paper, to tell the truth that how Romney pushed himself to the abyss step by step. Key words: the presidential election, causes of failure, tax, job creating, health care It is accepted widely that in an ordinary election, involving a stagnant economy and global unrest, coupled with unemployment rate of 7.9%, the typical incumbent president would be at an enormous disadvantage 1 . However confusing situation occurred this time. Being in such a passive position as mentioned above, President Barack Obama still won votes from most American and defeated his rival, Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, continuing to start his second term. How and why did that happen? Of course the reasons are so various that I cannot list them one by one. However, after watching three presidential debates, I personally consider the change of tax, job creating and healthcare policy as the biggest challenges the two candidates would face, because they are closely bound up with voters’ daily life compared with some other aspects such as foreign policy. And what plans the two candidates announced to take to handle the two problems, to a large extreme, had the decisive influence on the voters’ choice. So, I will mainly discuss the three policies to tell that the 1Comments of Jon Steward on Daily Show of 2012.9.25

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 election ended up so strange. Tax policy We all know that at the end of Bush-era,as well as the beginning of financial crisis,America had suffered a lot because of the immense amount of deficits,which worsened the investment environment and slowed down the economy recovery.So in 2009,President Obama increased the individual tax of the rich2 to gain more surpluses for deficits reduction.The policy got both praise and blame.It indeed helped decelerate the rate of deficits growth each year,but on the other hand. it didn't pull America out of the mire of debts.Plus,according to recent statics,the average income of middle class decreased from $54,983 in 2009 to $50,964 in 2012,which clearly showed that most American,especially the middle class,lived a worse life. As the voice of complain of high tax rising,Mitt Romney focused on this point and criticized Obama's tax policy severely.Surely,that was a good chance for Romney to gain support of the public if he could offer a better and reasonable solution to strike a balance between tax cut and deficits reduction.But alas,he didn't give the voters enough confidence to believe him by his plans Romney was intended to improve tax preference and cut the tax of all American regardless of their income,plus to shrink the government scale and cut the expense of the government to achieve the goal of deficits reduction.The outline of his plan sounded attractive and indeed earned him points at the beginning.Whereas according to experts'calculation,his tax policy was supposed to decrease government revenue by over 50%,which was predicted to drop the America to a terrible deficits hell.That means though the number in the American's accounts might rise,the price of the commodities would increase at an even faster speed due to the inflation sparked by the explosive growth of deficits,which could be regarded as a disaster after another by the middle class and it was an unacceptable situation.Moreover,it was criticized that the rich would benefit more than others from Romney's tax policy,which lowered voters'confidence further. Therefore,in tax reform field,Mitt Romney lost a good opportunity to gain an upper hand in the election.Although he hadn't been to a disadvantage position,I still believe that for Romney, failing to give Obama a sound beating in the boxing ring of tax should be considered as kind of big loss in the election. Job Creating If you have ever paid a little attention to the speeches delivered by President Obama on TV news and newspaper in the past four years,you can find the most high-frequency word taken from his mouth is JOB.So was it during the election.In hundreds of speeches and three presidential debates,job creating repeatedly came forward to trouble the two candidates,which left me such an impression that the better job creating machine was bound to win the campaign Those whose annual income is above $250,000 2

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 2 election ended up so strange. Tax policy We all know that at the end of Bush-era, as well as the beginning of financial crisis, America had suffered a lot because of the immense amount of deficits, which worsened the investment environment and slowed down the economy recovery. So in 2009, President Obama increased the individual tax of the rich 2 to gain more surpluses for deficits reduction. The policy got both praise and blame. It indeed helped decelerate the rate of deficits growth each year, but on the other hand, it didn’t pull America out of the mire of debts. Plus, according to recent statics, the average income of middle class decreased from $54,983 in 2009 to $50,964 in 2012, which clearly showed that most American, especially the middle class, lived a worse life. As the voice of complain of high tax rising, Mitt Romney focused on this point and criticized Obama’s tax policy severely. Surely, that was a good chance for Romney to gain support of the public if he could offer a better and reasonable solution to strike a balance between tax cut and deficits reduction. But alas, he didn’t give the voters enough confidence to believe him by his plans. Romney was intended to improve tax preference and cut the tax of all American regardless of their income, plus to shrink the government scale and cut the expense of the government to achieve the goal of deficits reduction. The outline of his plan sounded attractive and indeed earned him points at the beginning. Whereas according to experts’ calculation, his tax policy was supposed to decrease government revenue by over 50%, which was predicted to drop the America to a terrible deficits hell. That means though the number in the American’s accounts might rise, the price of the commodities would increase at an even faster speed due to the inflation sparked by the explosive growth of deficits, which could be regarded as a disaster after another by the middle class and it was an unacceptable situation. Moreover, it was criticized that the rich would benefit more than others from Romney’s tax policy, which lowered voters’ confidence further. Therefore, in tax reform field, Mitt Romney lost a good opportunity to gain an upper hand in the election. Although he hadn’t been to a disadvantage position, I still believe that for Romney, failing to give Obama a sound beating in the boxing ring of tax should be considered as kind of big loss in the election. Job Creating If you have ever paid a little attention to the speeches delivered by President Obama on TV news and newspaper in the past four years, you can find the most high-frequency word taken from his mouth is JOB. So was it during the election. In hundreds of speeches and three presidential debates, job creating repeatedly came forward to trouble the two candidates, which left me such an impression that the better job creating machine was bound to win the campaign. 2Those whose annual income is above $250,000

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 Mr.Romney seemed full of confidence in himself to refresh the job market in his first self-introduction as a presidential candidate on TV on September 5th,2011.He said his plan of economic recovery consisted of 59 ideas and nearly half of them were about bringing American new jobs.That was truly stimulation for American in such a high unemployment-rate period. Nevertheless,the so called "a booklet of economy items"didn't really turn out to details.Until the presidential debates,what we could hear,was still kind of his outline.Reviewing the second debate,while referring to jobs,I found he was keeping on saying"yes,we can provide more jobs", "you will find a job when you graduate from college in a year","I promise that we will have a bright future",kind of,I think,nonsenses.I just wanted to question that as a business man running for president,how Romney could not even give the listener an exact number to describe his economy recovering and job creating plan?That was his ball court! And Obama,in spite of wide criticism for her work in job creating in the last four years,this time made himself more convincing by some number in the debate.Words that"we will produce 500 thousand occupations for job seekers by developing new energy industry,and every undergraduate deserves to get one from them"was more persuasive than Romney's nonsense. Obviously,in terms of speech skills,Obama can more easily attach words to voters'need,which contributed enormously to driving himself out of inferior position. Health Care When talking about lethal for Romney,eliminating all other options,I will underline the answer "HEALTH CARE"without a second thought.Frankly,Romney's errors in competition of tax and job creation policy could only narrow the gap between the two candidates but never allow Obama to span the gap and surpass Romney.It was Romney's figure of so-called"cold-blooded businessman"formed in health care system reform that let him hit rock bottom and finally end up with failure. Just as what we memorized,disputes and controversy have been arising since President Obama decided to develop a national health care system for all American in 2009.Thanks to the Medicaid, regardless of poor and rich,most people could enjoy medical insurance even they were unable to pay it by themselves,which implied that the poor's medical insurance must be afforded partly by the rich and middle class,where the disputes originated.To gain those American's support, Romney stood up as a representative to oppose to the new system and declared on abolishment of it if he comes into power. Observing from the angle of protecting the rich and middle class,Romney seemed not supposed to blame.But considering 50 million American whose income was not sufficient for the insurance. what could be done to them by the nation without such a system?According to the statement of Romney3,the answer of this question was that"we do provide care for people who don't have insurance.We pick them up by ambulance and take them to hospital and give them 'care',and different states have different ways to provide that 'care'."Seriously,I appeared to understand 3 Statement in September 2011 when he was interviewed by the CBC journalist Scott Pelley

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 3 Mr. Romney seemed full of confidence in himself to refresh the job market in his first self-introduction as a presidential candidate on TV on September 5th, 2011. He said his plan of economic recovery consisted of 59 ideas and nearly half of them were about bringing American new jobs. That was truly stimulation for American in such a high unemployment-rate period. Nevertheless, the so called “a booklet of economy items” didn’t really turn out to details. Until the presidential debates, what we could hear, was still kind of his outline. Reviewing the second debate, while referring to jobs, I found he was keeping on saying “yes, we can provide more jobs”, “you will find a job when you graduate from college in a year”, “ I promise that we will have a bright future”, kind of, I think, nonsenses. I just wanted to question that as a business man running for president, how Romney could not even give the listener an exact number to describe his economy recovering and job creating plan? That was his ball court! And Obama, in spite of wide criticism for her work in job creating in the last four years, this time made himself more convincing by some number in the debate. Words that “we will produce 500 thousand occupations for job seekers by developing new energy industry, and every undergraduate deserves to get one from them” was more persuasive than Romney’s nonsense. Obviously, in terms of speech skills, Obama can more easily attach words to voters’ need, which contributed enormously to driving himself out of inferior position. Health Care When talking about lethal for Romney, eliminating all other options, I will underline the answer “HEALTH CARE” without a second thought. Frankly, Romney’s errors in competition of tax and job creation policy could only narrow the gap between the two candidates but never allow Obama to span the gap and surpass Romney. It was Romney’s figure of so-called “cold-blooded businessman” formed in health care system reform that let him hit rock bottom and finally end up with failure. Just as what we memorized, disputes and controversy have been arising since President Obama decided to develop a national health care system for all American in 2009. Thanks to the Medicaid, regardless of poor and rich, most people could enjoy medical insurance even they were unable to pay it by themselves, which implied that the poor’s medical insurance must be afforded partly by the rich and middle class, where the disputes originated. To gain those American’s support, Romney stood up as a representative to oppose to the new system and declared on abolishment of it if he comes into power. Observing from the angle of protecting the rich and middle class, Romney seemed not supposed to blame. But considering 50 million American whose income was not sufficient for the insurance, what could be done to them by the nation without such a system? According to the statement of Romney 3 , the answer of this question was that “ we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance. We pick them up by ambulance and take them to hospital and give them ‘care’, and different states have different ways to provide that ‘care’.” Seriously, I appeared to understand 3 Statement in September 2011 when he was interviewed by the CBC journalist Scott Pelley

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 why the poor would describe Romney as cold-blooded.To make things worse,the statements published by Romney in the even earlier days were dug out that"millions of people who have no health care insurance can get to the emergency rooms and get entirely free service and treatment. If that was no kind of socialism.I don't know what is!" Disasters for Romney have not ended yet.Later on September 17th 2012,a video was exposed to the public,which entirely broke Romney's gentle figure4.In that video secretly shot during a fund raiser in May,2011,Romney described 47%of American people who didn't pay no income tax as social parasites because they just enjoy welfare but have no responsibility for that and said that he would never care about them.And who are those forty-seven-percenters?Nearly two thirds of them are workers whose annual income is lower than $50000,who still pay payroll tax instead of income tax,which means they are in responsibility.And the left one third is exactly those who have an annual income less than $20000 and pay no tax,yet what should be claimed clearly is that most of them are the elder.Yes,they are the generation the young American may regard as hero or just be their own grandmother or grandfathers.They,in Romney's dictionary,are equal to parasites Consequently,Romney are totally labeled as cold-blooded and in the meantime,god sent President Obama a surprising present of hurricane Sandy,which provided a perfect stage to set up a kind figure for Obama.Bad news for Romney that Obama successfully grasped the opportunity and his kind figure shaped sharp contrast to Romney's cold-blooded one,which eventually evolved to the Romney's great disadvantage Conclusion Above all,why Obama can win the election historically has little to do with himself.He just walked the conventional path similar to other candidates,giving speeches to introduce his policy, participating in talk show to close the distance between him and voters,and significantly,never giving attacking comments to a certain class.Accumulating as his mistakes did,constant ridicule ultimately engendered his destruction.Regardless of millions of black men firmly supporting Obama,an increasing number of the white of middle class get despair of Romney's performance, and change their color from red to blue.That was the reason why the Daily Show presenter Jon Steward commented in a joking tongue that Obama is the luckiest guy in the planet because of his ridiculous rival. Mr.Romney taught us a vivid lesson that it could be extremely embarrassing when you were defeated not by your competitor but yourself.Such failure will remind you of regret,upset and ridicule from others,or in a word,full of frustrated memories.Watch out for your every movement Even your loss are destined,absolutely you can deservedly be appreciated for your devotion. 4 The video was uploaded by the magazine Jones 4

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 4 why the poor would describe Romney as cold-blooded. To make things worse, the statements published by Romney in the even earlier days were dug out that “millions of people who have no health care insurance can get to the emergency rooms and get entirely free service and treatment. If that was no kind of socialism, I don’t know what is!” Disasters for Romney have not ended yet. Later on September 17 th 2012, a video was exposed to the public, which entirely broke Romney’s gentle figure 4 . In that video secretly shot during a fund raiser in May, 2011, Romney described 47% of American people who didn’t pay no income tax as social parasites because they just enjoy welfare but have no responsibility for that and said that he would never care about them. And who are those forty-seven-percenters? Nearly two thirds of them are workers whose annual income is lower than $50000, who still pay payroll tax instead of income tax, which means they are in responsibility. And the left one third is exactly those who have an annual income less than $20000 and pay no tax, yet what should be claimed clearly is that most of them are the elder. Yes, they are the generation the young American may regard as hero or just be their own grandmother or grandfathers. They, in Romney’s dictionary, are equal to parasites. Consequently, Romney are totally labeled as cold-blooded and in the meantime, god sent President Obama a surprising present of hurricane Sandy, which provided a perfect stage to set up a kind figure for Obama. Bad news for Romney that Obama successfully grasped the opportunity and his kind figure shaped sharp contrast to Romney’s cold-blooded one, which eventually evolved to the Romney’s great disadvantage. Conclusion Above all, why Obama can win the election historically has little to do with himself. He just walked the conventional path similar to other candidates, giving speeches to introduce his policy, participating in talk show to close the distance between him and voters, and significantly, never giving attacking comments to a certain class. Accumulating as his mistakes did, constant ridicule ultimately engendered his destruction. Regardless of millions of black men firmly supporting Obama, an increasing number of the white of middle class get despair of Romney’s performance, and change their color from red to blue. That was the reason why the Daily Show presenter Jon Steward commented in a joking tongue that Obama is the luckiest guy in the planet because of his ridiculous rival. Mr. Romney taught us a vivid lesson that it could be extremely embarrassing when you were defeated not by your competitor but yourself. Such failure will remind you of regret, upset and ridicule from others, or in a word, full of frustrated memories. Watch out for your every movement. Even your loss are destined, absolutely you can deservedly be appreciated for your devotion. 4 The video was uploaded by the magazine Jones

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 Referrences: 1.凤凰网：阮次山：罗姆尼经济税收政策是其致命伤 http://news.ifeng.com/world/special/usa2012/content-1/detail 2012 09/07/17429352 0.shtml 2.中国金融投资网：美国财政政策聚焦：浅谈罗姆尼税收方案 http://www.kiiik.com/info/1606103.html 3.环球网社区：【专译】奥巴马第一任期，美中产阶级收入噩梦 http://bbs.huanqiu.com/thread-1729790-1-1.html 4.奥巴马总统4年任期政绩：美国宏观经济表现(2009一2012) http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog 988b4823010111kx.html 5.中新网：罗姆尼不关心底层 http://www.aqzyzx.com/system/2012/02/02/005319974.shtml 6.凤凰网：罗姆尼视频曝光：近半数选民不值得我关注 http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail 2012 09/19/17726140 0.shtml 7.Daily Show with Jon Steward#2012.9.18 and #2012.9.25 http://www.bilibili.tv/video/av364273/ http://www.bilibili.tv/video/av359887/ 8.2012 Candidate Comparison http://2012.candidate-comparison.org/?compare=Obama&vs=Romney 9. Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney 5

上海交通大学通识核心课程“历史视野下的美国文化”结业论文 5 Referrences: 1. 凤凰网：阮次山：罗姆尼经济税收政策是其致命伤 http://news.ifeng.com/world/special/usa2012/content-1/detail_2012_09/07/17429352_0.shtml 2. 中国金融投资网：美国财政政策聚焦：浅谈罗姆尼税收方案 http://www.kiiik.com/info/1606103.html 3. 环球网社区：【专译】奥巴马第一任期，美中产阶级收入噩梦 http://bbs.huanqiu.com/thread-1729790-1-1.html 4. 奥巴马总统 4 年任期政绩：美国宏观经济表现（2009－2012） http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_988b4823010111kx.html 5. 中新网：罗姆尼不关心底层 http://www.aqzyzx.com/system/2012/02/02/005319974.shtml 6. 凤凰网：罗姆尼视频曝光：近半数选民不值得我关注 http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2012_09/19/17726140_0.shtml 7. Daily Show with Jon Steward#2012.9.18 and #2012.9.25 http://www.bilibili.tv/video/av364273/ http://www.bilibili.tv/video/av359887/ 8. 2012 Candidate Comparison http://2012.candidate-comparison.org/?compare=Obama&vs=Romney 9. Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack_Obama_vs_Mitt_Romney