To be re-elected Obama needs the economy to appear to be improving, while rallying his base against Republicans. The way to do that is to keep taxes as low as possible, and spending as high as possible till the election, huge deficit spending, and portray that as a real economic solution. Note that Republicans are being judged by what they propose for the short term in the way of ‘jobs’, and the liberal Keynesian economic 'experts' provide cover for this scam. Any discussion of how this might hurt us after the election is to be portrayed as ‘just trying to hurt Obama by screwing up the recovery’.
Another misnomer is that Obama really wanted to raise taxes on the rich BEFORE the election, That is just Dem campaign spin. Obama gets to have his cake and eat it too on this:
1) He gets the GWB tax rates on the rich, as well as everyone providing the short term stimulus, with all the taxes going up automatically after the election
2) He gets to claim he really wants to raise those rates NOW for fairness, deficit reduction, etc, but is being blocked.
Congressional Republicans have shown themselves incapable of effectively countering the above re-election strategy messages and theme above.
Republicans winning the 2010 election and winning the tax battle on Bush tax cuts are both factors that will help Obama’s re-election and hurt Republicans(ironically).
But, today is not the election so it is not over yet.
That quote is from Michael Goodwin, who voted for Obama in 2008. At least some voters find common sense, eventually.