LETTER: Obama has hurt our country

Winston Churchill said that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

A recent illustration of Churchill's average voter is the confused Columbia woman who complained to poll workers that she couldn't find the Democrats on the Republican Primary ballot. Another indication of uninformed citizens is a recent opinion poll giving Barack Obama an approval rating of 39 percent. That's certainly not a high rating, but how could 39 percent possibly approve of Obama's performance with our disastrous social and economic conditions?

Since Barack Obama took office, medium household income has decreased, credit card debt has mushroomed and home ownership has declined. An average gallon of regular gasoline was $1.68. It now costs $3.44. The rate of unemployment was 6.8 percent; now it's 8.3 percent. Can you imagine how high this figure would be if the millions who gave up trying to find jobs were counted in this statistic?

The use of food stamps has increased 46 percent - an astounding increase of 14 million people, and those living in poverty have increased by 4 million. Without continuing this, let me just say that you would be hard pressed to find a single economic indicator that hasn't worsened during Mr. Obama's presidency.

What will happen to our nation if voters return this man to office for four additional years?

Gail Jarvis

Aiken