We endorsed the young presidential candidate who promised hope and change four years ago.

We hailed Barack Obama as a man who listened, learned and sought to build consensus. We said he had energized several generations that had given up on government as being able to positively influence their lives.
We quoted from his book "The Audacity of Hope" saying, to paraphrase, that he imagined citizens were waiting for politicians with the maturity to balance idealism and realism and to admit the other side just might have a point.

We don't doubt then-Sen. Obama's sincerity. "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own set of facts," he often quoted Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan as saying. We thought that demonstrated maturity and leadership.
But President Obama often has blurred his opinions and the facts as he moved to implement his agenda.

He championed a misnamed Affordable Care Act which purports to extend care to 40 million more patients while reducing costs, fostered class resentment to achieve his goals of wealth redistribution, and employed executive orders and a growing federal bureaucracy to handle issues that demand the across-the-aisle negotiation and compromise he espoused.

President Obama has many laudable accomplishments, among them OK'ing the military mission which dispatched Osama bin Laden, setting in motion a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, helping preserve auto industry jobs and extending unemployment benefits during the ongoing recession.

But today's issues -- the continued challenges of high unemployment, especially among our recent graduates, the staggering national debt, and the growing tensions at home and abroad -- call for a new approach. We believe Mitt Romney can provide that approach.

Gov. Romney has managed enterprises large and small, private and public. He has a demonstrated record of success, even when political imbalance was against him. He has espoused a peace-through-strength approach toward foreign policy.

He also has touted a five-point plan that he says seeks to achieve energy independence and reduce the flow of dollars for overseas oil by 2020, expand markets for American goods, enhance Americans' skills to compete for future jobs, reduce the deficit, and implement tax reform and reduce regulations to encourage small businesses to expand and hire.

Gov. Romney has shown the ability to achieve his goals in public and private settings. We recommend his election as president.