We are beginning to see the contours of the upcoming 2012 reelection campaign of Barack Obama. Whether always officially sanctioned or not, Obama’s campaign will focus on three general themes: a) the 2008 meltdown of the economy on Bush’s watch; b) conservative heartlessness in gutting cherished entitlement programs; and c) racial bias behind any criticism of Barack Obama.
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By any standard, the economy has remained mostly dismal for well over two years. Deficits, joblessness, fuel prices, average GDP growth, and housing are far worse than the average during the eight years of Bush’s presidency. Unemployment during almost all of President Obama’s tenure has exceeded 9 percent, despite promises that, because of the stimulus, it would not exceed 8 percent. Gas still averages almost $4 a gallon nationwide, amid a landscape of continual administration resistance to new domestic exploration and leasing. Record numbers of Americans now draw food stamps and unemployment insurance; to suggest that these programs are plagued by abuse and fraud, or that, if they are too easily available, they can discourage initiative, is heresy. Some of the largest states — California, Illinois, New York — are nearly fiscally insolvent. We’ve borrowed $5 trillion since 2009 to “stimulate” the economy — and seen little upsurge in economic growth, but a lot of evidence of a raging inflation to come on the heels of soaring gas and food prices.
Massive debt, record new deficits, high rates of joblessness, out-of-control prices for essentials like fuel and food — a combination like that usually dooms a president’s reelection bid. Similarly weak economies in 1980 and 1992 derailed incumbents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush.
However, Team Obama will make the argument that at least there has not been another Wall Street panic as during September 2008 under Bush, with the general uncertainty that followed. “Bush did it” is now too ironic a charge to evoke any more in matters of foreign policy, given that President Obama has now accepted all the Bush anti-terrorism protocols and wars — and gone well beyond them by joining a third conflict in Libya and quintupling the number of Predator-drone targeted assassinations.
But on the economic front, the “inherited mess” will have to do in the attempt to convince us that the present hard times are still George Bush’s while the signs of a weak recovery are all Barack Obama’s. Similarly, Herbert Hoover was still evoked for nearly a half-century any time FDR, Truman, or LBJ hit a rough patch. And if you did not know about the courageous economic decisions Barack Obama has made on our behalf on the domestic front, you will now, after the heroic killing of bin Laden. In the words of Joe Biden, it was “the boldest undertaking any president has undertaken on a single event in modern history” — an “undertaking” “undertaken” greater than the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, to stop North Korea from obliterating the south, to confront the Soviet Union over its missiles in Cuba, to send troops to recover Kuwait, or to conduct the surge in Iraq?
Obama’s landmark decision, in fact, explains why we can now at last appreciate his (or Joe Biden’s) genius and courage in restoring the ruined Bush economy, or so Biden further assures us: “The American people now . . . have a crystal-clear picture of how strong and decisive this president is. And that’s the last piece of the puzzle that had to be put in place for this great man. People are now beginning to take a second look at those incredibly difficult but absolutely necessary decisions the president had to make the day we walked into the West Wing.”
Then there are those cruel congressional opponents who for some reason believe that the $5 trillion in additional borrowing since January 2009 was a bit over the top. Greed, selfishness, and a lack of compassion — not an aging population, vastly expanded benefits, and soaring health-care costs — are responsible for the difficulties facing both Social Security and Medicare. Remedies abound, but none have been adopted by Team Obama. Before 2012 do not expect that the retirement age will be hiked. Benefits will not be trimmed or some entitlements privatized to encourage competition and cost-cutting — despite the real urgency for reform, since we are already running a $1.6 trillion annual budget deficit, and millions of baby-boomers are on the verge of retirement, a generation not known for either its reticence or its willingness to do without.
James Clyburn...charged that...: “The fact of the matter is, the president’s problems are in large measure because of his skin color.”
Actually true. If BHO had the same skin color as John McCain or Hillary Clinton he would still be shaking down small businessmen on the south side of Chicago. Absent the matter of his color, no one would have taken him seriously as a senatorial or presidential candidate. He was elected on racist grounds.
The first Affirmative Action president has shown how malign the practice is.
The power of the press is immense, but not insurmountable.
The ignorance of the electorate is immense, but....hmmmm, better wait and see.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Liberals can squeel like a stuck pig at the drop of a hat. I doubt the GOP can connect the coverage the ObamaCare passage generated with Dem losses in 2010, but the issues are there if they/we don't wait too long to find our voice.
This country deserved the calamatous presidency of obama. It has been the price of electing an incompetent socialist. If he is re-elected, the country will deserve the rapid and catastrophic deterioration that he has visited upon it, and that deterioration will accelerate.
I really don't think Republican big-shots (if there are any) want to beat him. They want some seats in the Senate, at least stay even in the House, and keep the present President in a box.
Think of the line, "Give him enough rope and he will hang himself."
It's a dangerous game to play. He might just hang the country in the process of collecting rope, or might get lucky and use the rope for a lasso that puts his enemies in a tightening loop.
We shall see, if we run our version of John Kerry, (I'm thinking Mitt) you can hope for control of Congress, but remain prepared to hit the mute button on your remote when the One speaks for the next four years.
You might also want to pray that the four Supremes we kind of like remain healthy and the middle man doesn't fall into the caldron of decisions being stirred by the three and one half ladies on the other side.
That is why they are scared to death of Sarah Palin:
1. She knows how to communicate directly with voters, which effectively neutralizes his allies in the MSM.
2. She knows how to keep the public's focus and attention on the right topics. If she is our candidate you can expect to hear "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" a lot.
At this point, the ads should start to show how our generation is pushing our children/grandchildren over the cliff. Doing nothing for SS/Medicare not only throws our elderly over the edge, but effectively crushes the dreams of our children with a deficit that will be highly destructive to the next generation.
All the Republicans have to do is run on HIS record! Unemployment twice what it was two years ago; Gas prices twice what they were. Back during the previous campaign, candidate Obama told the sob story of the person who couldn't go to a job interview because gas was over 2 dollars a gallon, and they could fill their tank; now he tells the dad of 10 with an SUV to go get a smaller car because gas costs so much!
Demonizing the opponent, leveling false charges against the opponent and playing the race card against the opponent seems to be the plan of attack for the Obama campaign. Apparently, the President of the United States doesn't take to heart a lesson we all learned as children: "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that counts." For him, it's all about winning and how he plays the game - or how it's played on his behalf - isn't important.
Jenna, it appears that the pot is once again calling the kettle black. When has Obama played the race card in his election campaign? Is it only wrong to demonize and level false charges when the other side does it?
"Forget your opponents; always play against par." -Sam Snead
If Obama gets re-elected and when not if the train jumps off the track during a second term then he can always claim he wasn't the engineer driving the train. If you tear up what's already busted then you get title to the junkpile.
"What ever you do don't throw me into the briar patch"
Tar Baby
Expect blame bush, expect republicans are radicals (ryan), expect "I'm a centrist". That is their only strategy. Attack, attack, attack. They have no record of competence but will surely fabricate one.
The architects of "jobs created or saved" know no other reality than that they create for themselves. Their oratorical contortions know no limits.
What is required is a candidate who will aggressively and categorically address the incompetent/corrupt nature of the gangster regime and their policy blunders.
Obambi doesn't have the luxury of appearing on the stage with McCain this time.
I wouldn't be surprised if Obama does exactly this. I'm sure his advisers are telling him 2012 will be a turnout election, the key to which he'll need an energized base. Those 3 themes are playing to the base; there is nothing there that will change the minds of independent voters that went heavily for Republicans in 2010. Obama is fighting to win 2012 based on the 2008; the electorate is looking more like 2010 and 2004. Obama and his advisers know they have a tough reelection ahead, they just don't realize how tough it has and will become.
Nicholson Baker should really send Victor Davis Tiberius Hanson a fruit basket or something, since his inability to understand the concept of "fiction" causes him to mention Checkpoint in every other column.
Why is it no one ever mentions that obamacare gutted medicare to the tune of half a TRILLION dollar. To top it off, it counted those cuts as savings TWICE, meaning another half a trillion will need to be cut. From current beneficiaries.
Being 50, I'm hosed either way so I don't have a horse in this race really. No matter what, all the benefits I paid for for these last 35 years, and will continue to pay for, will pay absolutely nothing under either plan.
