NYC Letter: On The Fail Trail -- A Hard Sell

Day 1,261 of CHOPE
D-minus 195 Days

Mr. Obama is pitching his re-election with another bus tour in one of his two Canadian-built buses. This time to the battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he both claims to have righted the economy and that the economy is an intractable mess that he inherited. He both reminds folk that the economy is growing but that the growth is not very impressive.

It's a hard sell.

BUMP. BUMP. BUMP.
The Bumps Are From The Steering

For the second time this year the Democratic polling and strategy firm Democracy Corps warns Campaign Barry that voters can't be fooled by Pollyanna pronouncements on a sluggish economy.

It is elites who are creating a conventional wisdom that an incumbent president must run on his economic performance – and therefore must convince voters that things are moving in the right direction. They are wrong, and that will fail. The voters are very sophisticated about the character of the economy; they know who is mainly responsible for what went wrong and they are hungry to hear the President talk about the future. They know we are in a new normal where life is a struggle – and convincing them that things are good enough for those who have found jobs is a fool’s errand. They want to know the plans for making things better in a serious way – not just focused on finishing up the work of the recovery.

Short story, Mr. Obama has an abysmal economic record, he can't run on results or yesterday's promises, therefore he must run on tomorrow's promises as results.

The reliable angels in the media* amen corner still megaphone Mr. Obama's pitch, but even they can't skirt the deadening crush of ineluctable economic reality.

FOR OBAMA, A JOBS REPORT
THAT KEEPS STINGING

POLAND, Ohio July 6, 2012 (WaPo) - Campaigning across Ohio on Thursday, President Obama walked a line between talk of economic optimism and expressions of economic realism. On Friday, reality hit home with a vengeance as the latest jobs report showed the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June and that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent.

... Obama’s message on his two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania has been twofold. First, he pointed to modest signs of progress in rebuilding the economy--the health of the auto industry [And here.] is his principal case study across Ohio’s northern tier. At the same time, he warned that the medicine offered by Romney and the Republicans is exactly the wrong prescription.

As he said here Friday morning, "We tried it, and didn’t work."

But it has become increasingly difficult for the president to argue that what he has tried is working well, or that he has something new to offer. Each month that the economy produces fewer jobs than are needed just to keep pace with population growth [scil., 125K] adds to the burden the president faces as the clock ticks toward November.

A quick turnaround doesn’t appear likely, given recent analyses. The Federal Reserve’s latest assessment projecting slower growth than previously forecast bodes ill for the incumbent.

Don't blame the Obama economy on Mr. Obama! It's those unliberated Republicans! -- as Mr. Obama explains in this WLWT News 5 interview, July 5, 2012:

We've been successful in moving us in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. ... I suspect that most people in Cincinnati would acknowledge that I've tried real hard, and we haven't gotten the Republicans to engage on a whole range of issues. That, I wish had happened.

Don't blame Mr. Obama! It's those irresponsible Europeans and-and Mr. Bush!

DEMOCRAT: "IT'S HARD TO SELL
THAT WE’RE IN THIS MESS
BECAUSE OF BUSH AND THE EUROPEANS"
BLOG July 07, 2012 (JWF)

THE JOBS DOLDRUMS
AND OBAMA'S FUTURE
By Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary

July 7, 2012 (HuffPo) - Bad news for the U.S. economy and for Barack Obama. We're in the jobs doldrums. Unemployment for June is stuck at 8.2 percent, the same as in May. And only 80,000 new jobs were added.

Remember, 125,000 news jobs are needed just to keep up with the increase in the population of Americans who need jobs. That means the jobs situation continues to worsen.

... In Ohio yesterday, Obama reiterated that he had inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. That's true. [It's not. Just ask Mr. Obama.] But the excuse is wearing thin. It's his economy now, and most voters don't care what he inherited.

Don't blame Mr. Obama! He made all the right choices!

Here is what isn't clicking with Mr. Obama. He didn't get the job done. For some odd reason Mr. Obama thinks going around the country telling voters the economy -- the Obama economy -- isn't good enough will get him re-elected. It won't. [Pause.] He is going to be fired. Not because he's black, not because he's a bad golfer -- because he didn't do the job he was hired to do.

Since Mr. Obama needs reminding who owns the Obama economy, you may, too.

We own the economy.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL, 20th),
DNC chair and proud owner of the Obama economy
WASHINGTON June 15, 2011 (Politico)

CHOPE.

All bumps. No ride.

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* And this.

Posted by Damian at July 8, 2012 02:00 PM