Former Rep. Stanton endorses Mitt Romney

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CLEVELAND, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Rep. James Stanton, D-Ohio, Thursday endorsed Mitt Romney for president, saying President Obama "just hasn't gotten the job done."

"One thing I learned about politics is that people judge you by your words the first time around, but they judge you by your actions the second time around," Stanton wrote in a guest column in The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

"That's how I think about the election this year. I supported Barack Obama in 2008 because I liked what he had to say. But after four years of painful unemployment and $5 trillion in new debt under President Obama, it's clear to me that he just hasn't gotten the job done. ...

"When President Obama arrived in Washington, he was handed the keys to the whole federal government -- with his party controlling both houses of Congress. He told the American people that policies like his $1 trillion stimulus bill would bring unemployment down to 5.4 percent by now. But today, we're still 9 million jobs short of that goal. In fact, the unemployment rate is stuck exactly where it was when President Obama took office -- 7.8 percent. And it's much higher when you count the millions of people who can only find part-time work and those who dropped out of the work force because the economy has been so tough over the past four years," Stanton wrote.

"I am endorsing Governor Mitt Romney because I believe it's time for new leadership. Governor Romney has the experience and the right plan to launch an American economic comeback -- by achieving energy independence, reducing our deficit, improving job training, supporting small businesses, and reforming our outdated tax code that too often gets in the way of job creation. That's a real plan to get people back to work," said Stanton, who was in Congress from 1971-1977 and served on the Cleveland City Council from 1959-1970.

Ohio is the most closely watched battleground state in the 2012 presidential election. The RealClearPolitics poll average shows Obama with a 2.3 point lead over Romney in the Buckeye State. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio since Abraham Lincoln.