Re: I think he is motivated to win the Whitehouse because...
Romney has said on numerous occasions that most of the things he does are to impress Anne. I know that could come off as just schilling for yourself, to make yourself seem like a family man... but there's more to it than that. Mormons feel that when they're with someone that they stay with them for eternity, and their actions now on earth can be held against them forever, so they attempt to do what they can to impress their women. However, as Romney also pointed out, "what is it, something like 90% of all the decisions made by man have been made to impress women"... and when he does he points to Helen of Troy... I can't say he's far off there, and I'm sure a part of Obama's motivation is impressing Michelle, as well.
To the point of Obama's effect on the economy, one of the major things holding us back right now from heavy rounds of hiring, is that the companies know the effects ObamaCare will have on the cost of their personnel once that goes into place, and they can't afford to increase payroll costs. I'm sure a lot of the current layoffs are motivaed by trying to cut payroll costs to adjust for those increases, too.
Another way Obama has held the economy back, is by keeping the corporate tax rates as high as they are... and constantly saying he's going to raise capital gains and personal income taxes. That's telling rich people, and large companies to move your capital overseas, to avoid the tax rates. It's also preventing foreign investors from bringing their capital here. It's also preventing current companies from hiring employees.
Still, the massive increases to the debt have had a major effect on the economy as well. One of the ways that occured was with Moody's downgrading out credit rating from AAA. That means we're gonna have to be borrowing at higher rates. As a result it makes people less interested in investing in US Currency, which holds down the value of the dollar. Just having the debt alone holds down the value of the dollar. Then add in inflation with it. Obama's monetary policy has not benefited the economy, that's for sure.
However, 1 of the biggest ways Obama has hurt the economy, is by propping up failing companies with government money. This has the effect of having companies make promises they can't keep, and then collapsing. The Solyndra debacle is a major example of this occuring. The auto bailout is another.
Obama went around falsely promoting the fact that both GM and Chrysler repaid their loans... but they used government money to do so... and GM hasn't paid back the $35B stock purchase that Obama made in them. He also went around singing GM's praises trying to raise their stock value, which the company isn't worth being backed. They thrived in one year--the very year that the tsunami hit northern Japan, causing destruction to many auto manufacturers parts makers. So Toyota, Honda, and Ford had massive delays in production, and GM benefited from the market share. But, in reality, they are still paying too much to their workers, and over the longhaul, do not have the key factors in place to promote longterm success for GM. He heavily encouraged GM to promote Union workers, and failed to use this opportunity to drive down the cost of labor on the car makers.
He has also attempted to promote this efficient vehicle program, which is falsely manipulating the market. The GM production of the Chevy Volt had been propped up as the futuristic EV that was not going to need to run on fuel. The trouble is, the line was delayed several years before it came out. Once it did there were some problems with the vehicle, and they needed to stop production to make alterations--which added to the overall cost of the vehicle. Once they put it back out, after the initial success in sales (which was largely to single purchasers), they increased production, for a market that wasn't there, and have had to shut down and scale back production. Because of it's high costs, it's way out of the range for people who are in the market for a new vehicle. A Volt in the high $40Ks, even with the $7500 tax credit, is way above the value of other fuel efficient vehicles in its class. Why would someone want to pay $36K for a Volt, when they could pay $17K/$18K and get a Kia, VW Jetta, Ford Focus, etc. and get 30+mpg. Even with the currently high cost of gas, it would take 20 years for the cost of gas purchases over that vehicles lifetime to catch up with the initial purchase of the Volt, nevermind the electricity charges for having to recharge the car's battery. THAT'S NOT COST EFFICIENT. The free market has an amazing way of filtering out which products are efficient and which are not... prices...
Obama's motivation to be president seems to be revolving around manipulating what America is, to become more socialist in nature, and that's what's hurting the US economy. He forcing nationalized healthcare, he voiced a desire to have increased fossil fuel prices to benefit his green technology companies and fuel efficient vehicles, and he's been going around the country promoting unions against the right to work...
That's one of the major aspects of this election. Romney is a free market guy, who knows how to get the economy going again and Obama is a socialist... who thinks the government knows best. So he wants to raid the success of free market enterprises to redistribute the wealth to institutionalize government reliance as a means of "modernizing" our society. However, "modernization" to Obama means the ideals what liberals and socialists see as right, not what the greater majority of Americans want, and have found successful for generations.