Obama's Problem and How He Handles It

Predictably the jobs report only showed 84,000 jobs created this month, most coming in healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. This opened up the criticism on President Obama that he really can't talk about progress effectively and that he needs to go bold even if Congress turns him down.


The economic situation prompted Jonathan Rauch to present from a Democratic point of view how Obama must avoid a Jimmy Carter-style defeat. He pointed out that at this stage of the election cycle Carter was either even or slightly ahead of Ronald Reagan but that even President Carter wasn't aware of how the economy did him in and Ronald Reagan could win in the last months. Rauch urges the President to embrace Simpson-Bowles, propose a new stimulus package and assorted other things to bolster the President.


Mitt Romney took the opportunity to slam the President calling the jobs report a "punch to the gut". Romney asserted today he has released a 59 point economic program, which after he revealed it he hasn't spoken of it again, He asserted he would encourage more trade,wage trade war on China, approve the Keystone pipeline project and cut taxes on businesses. He asserted the President hasn't signed any trade agreements--only three so far and the large Asian Trade Pact is being negotiated--and he had no plans for the economy. However, President Obama did submit a 400-plus page piece of legislation to the Hill, which offered over 42 different ways to get the economy going.


Mitt Romney tried to score today but he admitted that it would take 8-10 years for some of his plan to take effect. In fact, what he proposed today would have effect for the longer term. 


So what does the President do? He spent the day in Ohio and Pennsylvania on his bus tour and framed the economic news as another modest improvement making the number of jobs his administration has generated over 4.4 million. But he was most effective with a speech in Poland, Ohio, where he told the story of his own life and how it informed his vision of America. He was peppery and showed no signs of apology for his administration. He stressed that he brought manufacturing back to the United States for the first time since the 1990s. He talked about traveling around America on a Greyhound Bus with his mother and grandmother and staying at Howard Johnson's. And, later in Pittsburgh, he delivered much the same speech at Carnegie-Mellon to a crowd of about 8,000.


Flying home to D.C., he finished the day signing the Transportation Act and the bill, which saved the rates on the college student loans. In short, he framed a day, which put him back last month, in positive point of view and with a concrete act at the end to help the problem. Whether it helps is another matter but on the stump he showed his old stuff and by delving into his own story made his version of the American dream something the average voter can relate to.