White House press secretary Jay Carney declared, “The president is campaigning for jobs.” But instead of heading to states where there are persuadable senators, he’s heading to 2012 swing states.
As NBC News correspondent Norah O’Donnell noticed, Obama somehow feels the need to hold events to promote this legislation — again, the legislation, not his reelection bid — only in states that are considered in play in the 2012 presidential election.
Immediately after his address to Congress, Obama touted the act in Richmond, Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. In Virginia, Obama’s job approval/disapproval split is 40/54; in Ohio it’s 44/52; in North Carolina, it’s 40/54.
So Obama can’t quite intimidate wavering members of Congress to support his “American Jobs Act” by impressing them with his immense popularity. If you think about it, the lawmakers most likely to be persuaded would be red-state Democrats. At least with them, he can appeal to party loyalty and the argument that their fates are tied; a country vastly disapproving of Obama is likely to throw out a lot of red-state Democrats along with him in 2012. If his numbers improve, their chances of survival improve.
So on paper, Obama would be better off reaching out to Sens. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Jon Tester of Montana, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. And then there’s Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who sounds iffy. (The Senate’s other Democratic Nelson up for reelection next year, Bill of Florida, is making generally positive noises.) Of course, all those senators probably don’t want Obama coming to their states, and Louisiana, Montana, West Virginia, and Nebraska aren’t really on Obama’s target list for 2012.
Even then, it doesn’t appear that the rallies for the Jobs Act are really working, at least on Democrats who represent states Obama has visited, or at least not yet:
Senator Kay Hagan declined on Wednesday to say her support for the bill that Mr. Obama spent the day promoting in her state was indubitable. “We’ve got to have legislation that is supported by Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “I’m going to have to look at it.”
Representative Heath Shuler, another North Carolina Democrat, said Congress should tame the deficit before approving new spending for job programs. “The most important thing is to get our fiscal house in order,” said Mr. Shuler, a leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. “Then we can talk about other aspects of job creation.”
On Thursday, Obama’s Jobs Act tour goes back to the swing state of Ohio. Coincidentally, of course.
he's a SCOAMF
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBy now I think it's very obvious that "Obama's jobs plan" is just a red herring meant to create a campaign issue. I read today he won't actually have legislation to submit til next month?!?! (That stack of papers he keeps waving around when he says "pass this bill" -- are they literally just blank pages, a stage prop?)
At today's WH presser, the first question was "why did Obama propose to pay for his plan with tax increases when the Republicans have already said they will not vote for tax increases?" Geithner responded (paraphrasing) "because this is the bestest jobs plan ever that America needs to get back to work, and congress must pass it immediately."
In other words, avoided the actual political question to spread more manure on the "policy" question. But there is no real policy, it's all politics. I think the dodge answered the question. Reading between the lines: "there is no hope that this plan would ever work or could ever pass, but that is not the point since we're going to run a 1948 campaign which requires Congress to 'do nothing' so the president can run against them. So we're just going to talk about how great this bill is (without showing the details to anyone) and pretend Congress should take us seriously."
It will be most interesting to see what Dems in congress think of this campaign strategy -- sounds to me like Obama is planning to throw them under the bus to save himself (where have we seen that before?) Will the Dems in congress stand up for themselves (and run against Obama), or lie down and take it (and lose in a tidal wave election)?
More specifically, where is Obama going to take this campaign? Vulnerable Dems in purple districts certainly will not want to stand next to the president while he "runs against a do-nothing congress", especially if those vulnerable Dems voted against Obama's plan (if it ever even gets submitted to a vote!) Even safe Dems in blue districts should be scared of Obama (NY-9)!
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