Voters Don't Blame Obama for Bad Economy

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Oct. 4, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

         When President Barack Obama and GOP Presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney face off tonight at the University of Denver in the first presidential debate, Romney will blame Obama for the nation’s 8.1% unemployment rate.  Together with his VP pick Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Romney has bashed Barack for failing to add enough jobs since taking office.  Mitt mentions nothing about the 8,000 jobs lost during former President’s George W. Bush’s last two years and the continued meltdown during Barack’s first year-and-a-half.  Since March 2012, the nation’s added over 4 million jobs, only half the number lost during the Great Recession of 2007-2008.  While Romney’s knee-jerk reaction blames Obama for almost everything, a new Esquire/Yahoo poll shows that only 45% of voters blame Obama for today’s high unemployment rate.

            Romney’s mission tonight, should he accept it, is to convince voters he’d do a better job fixing the economy than Barack.  That same Esquire/Yahoo poll also showed that 49% of voters believe Obama did “as much as he could” to add jobs and fix the economy.  Telling voters tonight that it’s all Barack’s fault could backfire on Romney, whose past negative attacks and hyperbole hasn’t sat well with mainstream voters.  Before becoming Massachusetts governor Jan. 2, 3003, Mitt worked as a venture capitalist for Bain Capital.  He knows more than most how Wall Street’s dramatic upward trend since Obama’s inauguration, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising from 8,000 to today’s near 15,000 close, improves the nation’s unemployment rate.  Without a bull market on Wall Street, Main Street loses jobs.  Yet Mitt never mentions anything about the Dow’s dramatic improvement.

            Mitt’s only hope of scoring points with voters involves laying out in clear detail his plan to add 12 million private sector jobs.  If he brings up more across-the-board tax cuts, he’s going to get creamed.  Voters are more savvy now about how the old, discredited Trickle-Down-Theory has caused endless deficits for the foreseeable future.  While Romney would like to return to the days of Reaganomics, he knows that was tried and failed again in the Bush administration.  When Romney picked Ryan Aug. 12, he thought it would bring the Tea Party and Christian evangelicals on board. Judging by Obama’s surge in Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina, it’s unlikely that Mitt will capture enough of Bush’s evangelical vote.  Without mincing words, Romney has a problem with the evangelical community.  His Mormon faith doesn’t sit well in the Midwestern and Southern Bible Belt.

            Romney and Ryan like to point out Labor Department statistics that show Obama’s economy isn’t adding enough jobs.  They don’t mention about the past GOP administration’s loss of some 8 million jobs, sometimes more that 200,000 a month.  When the July jobs report showed the nation added 163,000 private sector jobs, Romney and Ryan went mute.  When a month later the Labor Dept. reported 63,000 jobs, they jumped all over Obama.  While Barack would like to see more private sector and government jobs, Romney and Ryan have committed themselves only to the private sector.  Both have indicated they see a real need to shrink the size and influence of the federal establishment.  Getting down to brass tacks, it usually means a federal hiring freeze and layoffs.  Because they won’t raise taxes, the only way to balance the budget is laying off government workers.

            Tonight’s debate promises some real contrasting views about the role of government.  When the 42-year-old Ryan started talking about privatizing Medicare and Social Security he practically caused a riot at the American Assn. of Retired People convention.  Ryan insisted, against all advice, he would gladly take on the Social Security and Medicare debate.  When the dust settled, Romney’s dead heat Aug. 12 morphed into an insurmountable Obama lead.  Young, naïve and idealistic, Ryan tanked Romney’s hopes of becoming president.  Now Romney’s trying to repair the damage talking up his own health care proposals and immigration policies.  Ryan’s campaign blunders worked well in Tea Party country but not on Main Street USA.  Committed to scaling back the size of the government, Romney and Ryan must level with voters about their plans for cutting federal jobs.

              Romney faces tough sledding if he continues to bash Obama on his approach to health care and the economy.  Mitt has not offered any details on how he plans to balance the budget and fix the economy.  Promising to add 12 million more private sector jobs doesn’t answer how he plans to do it.  Coming into the debate, Romney was told by his handlers that he has to land a knock out punch to turn the election around.  Without hitting Obama with everything but the kitchen sink, Romney’s campaign was taking on water, no thanks to his feisty VP.  When Romney faces Obama tonight he’ll be far more rehearsed and aggressive than Barack.  GOP operatives hope to throw Barack for a loop, put him on the defensive and get him stuttering about his domestic and foreign policies.  Without a major knockout punch in the debate, neither candidate will change too many minds.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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