Posted on 06/14/2012 8:40:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In a Thursday speech, President Barack Obama will argue that he needs four more years to undo the damage done under his predecessor, President George W. Bush.
The Obama campaign's new tactic will be to convince voters that they would be worse off with his Republican rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, as president because Romney would be similar to Bush, according to an analysis by Andy Sullivan and Caren Bohan for Reuters. Sullivan and Bohan spoke with some Obama campaign insiders for the report.
With the economy in poor shape, many Democrats are coming to the conclusion that they need to contrast Obama's achievements with the state of the economy when he took office in 2009.
Just a month before Obama won election, the nation saw a financial collapse accompanied by a swift decline in home prices. A Monday report by the Federal Reserve quantified the economic devastation of that recession: American's median net worth fell to its lowest levels since 1992.
Obama's new message is reflected by Jonathan Bernstein in a Tuesday article for The Washington Post. The 2012 election is really an election between Obama and George W. Bush, he writes.
Since Obama entered the White House during the deepest part of the recession, Bernstein reasons, the 2012 election will come down to whether voters believe Obama should be held responsible for the economy's current deprivation.
"That's why so many of the campaign messages you're going to hear this year come down to the argument about whether Barack Obama should be rewarded or punished for the current state of the economy, which boils down, in large part, to that Obama vs. Bush question," Bernstein wrote.
In a preview of what's to come, Obama has tied Romney's policies to those of George W. Bush in recent speeches.
"When I hear Governor Romney say his 25 years in the private sector gives him a special understanding of how the economy works, my question is, why are you running with the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the brink of disaster," Obama said.
The setting for Thursday's speech is intended to reinforce Obama's message. Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland is known for its retraining programs which help laid-off workers find new careers in biotechnology, wind power and advanced automotive manufacturing.
Obama will likely use the setting to contrast his proposals for more spending for education and job training with Republican proposals to reduce spending in these areas.
"It's a very successful institution that's a good forum for the president's message. It's likely to appeal to voters whose support he needs," John Green, professor of political science at University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, told Reuters.
A Bush on Hand has worth, too.
This will placate his hard left base, but for the millions of Americans who are unemployed or under-employed, this will fall on deaf ears. Obama owns this economy, he promised to cut the deficit in half, get rid of earmarks, create millions of new jobs etc. The blame game won’t cut it. George W. Bush’s name won’t be on the ballot in November. This vote will be a thumbs up or down on Obama.
People may still blame Bush, but Obama blaming Bush isn't going to work because people wanted Obama to fix Bush's "mess." It's just making Obama look even more ineffective.
ummm...
I don’t remember things being *this* bad under Bush...
And they didnt START going bad until the democraps and Nanzi Pelosi took over Congress
To hear you tell it, Barack Hussein Obama, old chap, there is not time left in all the universe to fix the mess Bush was supposed to have left for you to “clean up”.
This was one of the tasks set before you, like Hercules, to clean out the Augean Stables.
Get to work. Or, you might use the strategy that Hercules finally employed.
I need more time to finish thoroughly destroying this once great country, ya morons.
And they didnt START going bad until the democraps and Nanzi Pelosi took over Congress"
Bears repeating. That was 2006. Dems couldn't wait to screw the country to make Bush look bad so they could foist their new messiah on the masses. It worked. America got hosed.
And, Bush put a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf and other areas and when a court ordered the moratorium lifted he did not abide by the court order.
And, Bush spent billions on Green Energy companies run by Obama voters/donors only to see them go bankrupt.
And, Bush policies are so diabolical that 3 -1/2 years after he is out of office unemployment numbers and new claims are revised upward every week Obama has been in office.
And, Bush policies are so fiendish that after 3-1/2 years job growth continues to fall.
And, Bush policies are solely responsible for every budget Obama has proposed to not be able to have a single vote cast in favor it by any member of either party.
One question, if Bush policies are responsible for the bad economy Mr. Not-My-Fault, why haven't you put in place policies to offset them?
It's been 3-1/2 years. What are you waiting on?
i hope he gets heckled...
“Obama’s new message is reflected by Jonathan Bernstein in a Tuesday article for The Washington Post. The 2012 election is really an election between Obama and George W. Bush, he writes.”
Bernstein is as stupid as Obama.
He is a political blogger...BIG DEAL!
http://twitter.com/#!/jbplainblog
To be fair there's a lot of blame that can be properly ascribed to Bush:
However, those sorts of policies (in the general idea, if not the actual implementation) are still continued under Obama, so it's a bit like having one police-chief institute an ultra-violent no-knock raid policy which, after he moves on, is retained and reinforced by his replacement who claims "my predecessor instituted these policies" in response to the general populous getting upset about the violence.
Technically correct; responsibly repugnant.
The 22nd Amendment was passed when only White men were president. It is no longer operative.
What was the insult? I didn’t tune it.
The current known costs of Obamacare create a disincentive for a business to add more employees.
The fear of future unknown costs reinforce that disincentive.
The regulatory burdens imposed by you and your EPA Czar have crippled the energy industry.
This has the additional effect of imposing a huge financial burden on ALL other businesses, large and small.
Your policies and the constraints imposed by YOUR Justice department, require federal, state, and local governments to provide BILLIONS of dollars in services to over 20 Million ILLEGAL IMIGRANTS.
All of these actions STIFLE the private sector, add costs to the public sector, AND
CHOKE THE FEDERAL TAX REVENUE THAT WOULD RESULT FROM THESE MARKETS, IF NOT FOR YOUR POLICIES.
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