The upcoming presidential election will likely prove pivotal from a number of standpoints. Given that Republicans are relying on their tried and trite approaches, the election will reveal whether Americans are engaged enough to choose the substance that Barack Obama offers.

Obama is contrasting the track record of Republicans and Democrats over time. It is a marvel that Republicans can still claim success concerning their “leadership” regarding issues of war and peace, along with fiscal responsibility.

A new book by Bill Press, “Train Wreck, The End of the Conservative Revolution,” offers some sobering statistics concerning the Republican track record. While statistics can be manipulated, Press offers hard facts.

There is no doubt Republicans will attempt to deny most or all of this information as being skewed, or pass it off as the result of “media bias” (the typical Republican mantra when things don’t go their way). However, issues such as where the economy stood in 2007, as opposed to where it was when George W. Bush took office in 2000, are quite difficult to sidestep or pass off as the result of unfriendly media coverage.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter submitted a $591 billion budget. By 1988, Reagan had ballooned the federal budget to $1.064 trillion – an 80 percent increase. The current federal deficit stands at $9.5 trillion. Neither more tax cuts for the wealthy nor Republican “leadership” will solve that mess.

How can the party and ideology that consistently created problems now be relied upon to solve them?

Mark Tardif, Waterville