Obama and Romney Essay

In the midst of a heated presidential race two great leaders are vying for the affection of all of America. On the left side we have our current president Mr. Barrack Obama and on the right side his opponent Mr. Mitt Romney. On paper both are outstandingly qualified candidates and both have been trusted to hold a position of leadership over large numbers of people. Mitt Romney built his foundation through a strong career in business before becoming a politician, while President Obama stuck to the legal side of things building up his reputation as a civil rights lawyer and activist. In this review of both candidates I will attempt to unbiasedly inform the reader of their qualifications as powerful leaders including their foundations and backgrounds, their accomplishments, and their leadership capabilities. It seems justifiable to start with educational backgrounds as that is where both candidates began to really assume leadership positions. In the next section of this essay I will try to identify their earlier careers and how those experiences may qualify them to hold office as the President of the United States. Both candidates come from very prestigious educational backgrounds. Obama moved from Honolulu Hawaii to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend the Occidental College. It was there that he made his first ever public speech vocalizing his disdain for the Occidental College’s policy of apartheid pertaining to South Africa. In 1981 he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science and with a focus on international relations, he graduated with a bachelor of arts in 1983. After some years of work at two corporations and a couple more as a community organizer which I will get into later Barack began to attend Harvard Law School in 1988, where he was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and later became its president, being the first African American to ever do so. In 1991 he graduated with a J. D. magna cum laude. Mitt Romney’s education began at Stanford University in the year of 1965. It was there that he perhaps took his first political stance in his participation in the staging of a counter protest against a group staging a sit in at the university administration building in opposition to draft status tests. Romney left the country to stay in France as a Mormon missionary in 1966; his stay would last for 30 months fulfilling a traditional rite of passage in his family. Though it is not traditional education I feel obligated to state that during this stay in France Romney showed true leadership skills in becoming co-president of his mission where he oversaw the work of 175 others. Upon his return to the States he began attending Brigham Young University in 1969. Due to the culturally conservative nature of BYU Romney naturally managed to stay out of the radical turmoil that came along with the 60’s and 70’s and became president of the all male cougars club booster organization and it was in these years that he showed a new found discipline in his studies that he somewhat lacked before. In 1971 he earned a bachelor of arts in English with highest honors and gave a commencement speech to the whole of BYU. Wanting to pursue a path in business Mitt heeded his father’s advice and put off a career to attend a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He graduated cum laude from this program in 1975. He was named a baker scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his class. Both of these men have incredibly impressive educational accomplishments and worked hard to earn a good social standing and in doing so gained advantageous leads amongst their competitors on their career paths. Our current president began his career In between his attendance at Columbia University and Harvard at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group. Just before entering Harvard he worked as a community organizer in Chicago. During his summers at Harvard he worked in the law offices of Sidley Austin as well as Hopkins & Sutter. After his graduation he accepted a position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book Dreams Of my Father which was published in 1995. From 1992 through 1996 he was a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, and from 1996 through 2004 he served as senior lecturer teaching constitutional law. Obama continues to show his comfort in a leadership role as he directed Illinois’s Project Vote, which was a voter registration campaign where he oversaw ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars. This project achieved its goal of registering 1500,000 unregistered African American Citizens. In 1993 e also joined the Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland law firm where he specialized in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. Obama served on board of directors for the Woods Fund of Chicago, and of the Joyce Foundation, which helped to fund the development of underprivileged communities in Chicago. To add to this already astounding list of accomplishments the young Obama would serve as founding president and chairman of the board of directors for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge 1995 to 1999. I would like to note that thus far Barack Obama has proved to show a real sincere care for the development of his community and his race. From 1991 to 2002 he has fought for what he believes is right and through his career choices and political actions has shown himself to be a credible and intelligent young leader. Romney’s early career which is also quite impressive holds just as much esteem as Obama’s and though it follows a different path his accomplishments should also be very highly regarded and held to an esteem just as high as his running mates. Upon his graduation from Harvard in 1975, Romney was recruited by several firms but chose to join the Boston Consulting Group, working as a management consultant for a variety of companies better preparing him for his later roles as a chief executive and further leadership positions. In 1977, he was hired by a management consulting firm in Boston name Bain & Company. The more admirable thing about Bain & Company that should be accredited to Romney’s decision to work there is that instead of just providing quick consulting to a company and then parting soon after he could now completely submerge himself into his clients business and continue to work with them until changes actually began to materialize. This really shows a concern for his clients well being and for the passion of Romney to better the lives of those that surround him. Within just a few years Romney was considered by the firm one their best consultants, and Romney assumed the position of vice president of this firm in 1978. In 1984 Romney left Bain & Company to start the spin off private equity investment firm called Bain Capital. AS CEO of this company he managed to become personally responsible for their success by investing in companies like Staples Inc, Dominoes Pizza, Sealy Corporation, and Sports Authority. Overall both of these men have proven themselves to be outstanding leaders, and in comparison it would seem that Obama is in a mindset that deals with his community and the well being of his race and all of the people he oversees. Romney’s mindset is that of a businessman and he exudes the qualities that a great leader should possess. Both have served terms in office, and before becoming our president Obama was elected an Illinois state senator in 1996. While in office he gained support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2005 Barack Obama was sworn in as a U. S. Senator. And in 2008 he became the President of the United States of America. Romney has held office as the 70th governor of Massachusetts in 2003. In conclusion both men are great candidates for presidency and have proven themselves time after time to be successful leaders. It is up to you to decide which one holds a better plan for our future America. Whether you think that we need to focus on our nation’s financial crisis which might be right up Mitt Romney’s ally having done so for states and other businesses so many times before, or if you want America to focus on the well being of minorities, workers, women, and education, which is where Obama might take the reins. It is up to you to decide which would make the better leader when you cast your vote in November.