Running Against The Fantasy Obama

After watching "The Road We've travelled", my mail box as filled with rightwing e-mails denouncing Obama for a flag with his face on it seen in Florida, the desecration of military cemeteries in Libya as confirmation of the folly of supporting the Arab Spring, and a Youtube of how President Obama's birth certificate was forged. None of this could sway anyone but reinforce the rightwing views of our radical, Marxist, Muslim, Kenyan-born President. Sometimes, I respond, "Feel the hate, Luke."

Jonathan Bernstein writing in today's Washington Post warns the Republicans about running against this phantom and believing their own nonsense. Today, Mitt Romney again remarked that President Obama never had a real job--say like bankrupting companies. Bernstein writes that you and your self-enclosed world may buy this but that no one is going to accept the President is inexperienced or that he's never had a "real job", like teaching constitutional law or ,more to my point, organizing communities wasn't a real job. The problem for Republicans is that if they recant on these fantasies they will be drummed out of the party and the Catholic Church or their local Mormon Tabernacle.

Yesterday, the President and the Vice President kicked off their campaign. The President didn't refer to his opponents by name but Vice-President Biden assumed the role of the attack dog. The Vice President was warming up his routine before going on to other "swing states". His was a populist economic message aimed at the middle class and warning voters that if they vote Republican they will "bankrupt the middle class". He wove enough anti-1%er language in the speech to take on Mitt Romney and he reminded Ohio voters that Mitt was for letting Detroit go bankrupt and that even Bain Capital had no money to bail out the auto industry, something Bain said at the time.

The Obama campaign has believed that they will face a battered Romney as the Republican nominee. Romney yesterday admitted the economy was getting better and that the recovery looked like it was going to hold. The more the economy does, the whole rationale for his candidacy starts to evaporate but if voters feel a recovery, they will remember who did the heavy lifting and how obstructed.

So how is Republican enthusiasm for Willard. Gallup today released a poll that GOP enthusiasm for Willard is far below its embrace of McCain in 2008.

Will you enthusiastically support your candidate--47% McCain; 35% Romney

Is Your Vote against Obama--35% McCain; 42% Romney

Will you vote for Obama --6% McCain ; 8% Romney

Stay Home --8% McCain ; 11% Romney

This blog has posted a few polls recently that demonstrate that Obama is getting his mojo back and re-capturing his 2008 coalition. Today, the Allstate(really)/National Journal/Heartland poll has President Obama's approval rating hitting 51% and his numbers among components of his coalition coming back to 2008 numbers. Obama still lags among white independents and white students. Otherwise, everything is about equal or above. 60% of the respondents said that the economy was improving and the majority give credit to measures taken by President Obama.

If you want an excellent Paul Krugman column, today's "Born Killers" is Krugman at his Nobel best explaining how oil prices work and how Republican calls for "Drill,Baby, Drill" will not cut prices or lead to greater employment. He does an excellent comparison of the current boom in South Dakota, which Republicans tout as their model, and the gas boom in Pennsylvania, which shows that in large populated states the oil and gas industry do not create enormous numbers of jobs. It is worth reading as Romney criticizes the President for wanting "alternative energy", while he wants an "alternative President"--yuck, yuck.