Voters in the Savannah area and elsewhere will soon decide whether President Obama or Mitt Romney will lead this nation for the next four years.

It’s a hugely important decision, with the most critical question being jobs: Which man is better able to put America back to work?

In our view, it’s time to fire Obama and hire Romney. We endorse him for president of the United States.

The struggling economy is by far the No. 1 issue facing Americans today, tomorrow and probably the next few years. The executive in the White House, Republican or Democrat, must have a plan that will encourage employers to invest in expansion, then have the skills to steer it through a Congress that could remain politically divided.

Frankly, Mr. Obama has had four years to get this job done. That includes two years with a Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Yet, he has little to show for it. Frankly, he hasn’t earned a second term.

Here are the facts. In September, the government’s monthly jobless report showed that the unemployment rate dropped below 8 percent for the first time since the president took office. However, that figure rates an asterisk. More than 4 million Americans have given up looking for jobs since January 2009. At the same time, the economy is producing jobs at a slower rate than last year — an average of 131,000 a month so far in 2012. Before the Great Recession started, 138 million people were working. At the current rate, it will take three years just to get back to square one. At the same time, 4-5 million more Americans will have entered the workforce. They, too, will be looking for jobs. Where are they, Mr. President?

But chronic unemployment and a sputtering economy aren’t the only reasons why the president deserves a pink slip. Since Obama took office, the federal government is more than $5 trillion deeper in debt. He bailed on the recommendations made two years ago his own bipartisan panel, the Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (commonly known as the Simpson-Bowles plan), to help cut the debt by $4 trillion over 10 years. Consequently, the nation is at the edge of a fiscal cliff, which means crippling tax hikes and steep spending cuts in 2013.

Obama is fond of blaming President Bush for the train wreck of the economy he inherited. But the statute of limitations for faulting Bush ran out at least three years ago.

Obama is perfectly able to take the nation on the wrong path on his own. He did this early in his tenure, when Democrats controlled both chambers on Capitol Hill, when he transformed one sixth of the U.S. economy by shoving Obamacare through Congress. This was a premeditated move by the president when the economy was reeling because of the 2007-09 recession.

Compromise is not in Obama’s DNA. He’s a product of bare-knuckled, winner-take-all, Chicago-style politics. Yet he is fond of making Republicans the scapegoats for the nation’s woes.

Presidents of the United States, however, aren’t supposed to make excuses. They’re expected to find a way to get things done. President Reagan did it. So did President Clinton.

Obama has yet to do it on any substantial legislation. It’s a key leadership failure. His my-way-or-the-highway approach has been a colossal flop in trying to unite and rally a politically divided country. And not just on Obamacare. He failed when he tried to impose a cap-and-trade on carbon energy production, end secret ballots for unions via card check and tax hikes proposed for 2011.

At the top of the next president’s list is fixing the economy. That’s where the Republican nominee shines. He’s strong where Obama is weak. He has a five-point plan designed to lift the economy from the doldrums, create jobs, increase take-home pay, get the national debt under control, help small businesses and make America more energy independent.

While Romney remains vague on his tax loophole-closing proposal, at least he has a plan. Obama essentially has none. And unlike Obama, Romney doesn’t practice Chicago-style politics. He has shown he can work with members of the opposite party, which he did as governor of Massachusetts, one of the bluest states in the country. There, he and the Democrat-controlled legislature closed a $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes.

Romney built a successful business. When he talks about his proposals for reforming Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, major contributors to deficit spending, there’s a ring of credibility. When the 2002 Winter Olympics was about to crash because of mismanagement and scandal, he took charge and rescued it. That’s what effective leaders do. They find a way to get it done.

Obama is likeable on a personal level. But on the policy level, he has failed. This nation cannot afford four more years of the Obama highs: High unemployment, high debt and high economic uncertainty.

The question is which man can be trusted to manage the economy and budget and work with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where Republicans will still control one, and perhaps both, chambers. Americans know what Mr. Obama can and cannot do. Mr. Romney represents a change in leadership and direction. We endorse Mitt Romney for president.