Like many Americans, I wish that President Obama had been firmer and clearer in the first presidential debate. However, like many Americans, I plan to vote for President Obama's re-election. I think he is the better choice, and the debate gives good reasons why.

Yes, Governor Romney voiced a number of points which the President did not answer. However, a great many of those points were either misstatements, shifts from Romney's previously stated views and policies, breaks with the Republican Party platform, or, as some have suggested, outright lies.

Governor Romney also indicated that the Constitution says that the rights shared by all Americans were given them by a creator. That is not true. Governor Romney might well believe this, but that's not in the Constitution. That claim is found in the Declaration of Independence, a grand and nearly sacred American document, but not the law of the land.

President Obama, by contrast, held to his previously stated policies. Do I agree with all of those policies? I do not. I disagree with some of them. However, I agree with a number of them, I know where Obama stands, and I trust him.

For these reasons, I will be voting for Barack Obama in 2012.

Greg Beatty

Bellingham