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In 2008 during the debates, Romney argued that there was "nothing wrong
with the Economy".<br>
<br>
I suppose that he is still quite pleased with the economy.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 8/7/2012 7:55 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
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[Reich's diagnosis - accurate, even obvious, as far as it goes - scants
the point that this anti-election serves the purposes of those by whom
it was engineered: the 1%.]
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<div>The worst economy since the Great Depression and you might think
at least one of the candidates would come up with a few big ideas for
how to get us out of it.<br>
<br>
But you’d be wrong. Neither candidate wants to take any chances by
offering any large, serious proposals. Both are banking instead on
negative campaigns that convince voters the other guy would be worse.<br>
<br>
President Obama has apparently decided against advancing any bold ideas
for what he’d do in the second term, even if he has a Congress that
would cooperate with him. <br>
<br>
He’s sticking to a worn script that says George W. Bush caused the
lousy economy, congressional Republicans have opposed everything he’s
wanted to do to boost it, it’s slowly on the mend anyway, the Bush tax
cuts shouldn’t be extended for the rich, and we shouldn’t take a chance
electing Romney.<br>
<br>
Yet the public wants bigger ideas from the President, and wants to know
what he’ll do in his second term to get us out of this mess. A New York
Times-CBS News poll released last week showed that a majority of voters
believe the president “can do a lot about” the economy. That’s a
double-digit jump from the fall of 2011.<br>
<br>
The President could propose a new WPA, modeled after the Depression-era
jobs program that hired hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans to
rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, or a new Civilian Conservation
Corps.<br>
<br>
He could suggest permanently exempting the first $25,000 of income from
payroll taxes, and making up the lost revenues by eliminating the
ceiling on income subject to it. He could propose resurrecting the
Glass-Steagall Act and breaking up the big banks, so Wall Street
doesn’t cause another financial collapse.<br>
<br>
But you won’t hear any of this, or anything else of this magnitude,
because the White House doesn’t want to take any risks. Polls give
Obama a slight edge in the critical eight or so battleground states,
so, the thinking goes in the Obama camp, why say anything that might
give Romney and the GOP a target?<br>
<br>
Besides, polls also show Romney isn’t well-liked by the electorate.<br>
<br>
So Obama has decided to campaign as the anti-Romney.<br>
<br>
Mitt Romney is playing it even more cautiously. His economic plan is
really a non-plan: more tax cuts for the rich, undefined spending cuts,
and no details about how he’d bring down the budget deficit. No
presidential candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1928 has been more vague
about what he’d do on the critical issues facing the nation.<br>
<br>
Romney’s advisors assume Obama can’t possibly be reelected with the
economy this bad. Just 44 percent of registered voters in a Washington
Post-ABC News poll earlier this month approve of the job the president
is doing on the economy, while 54 percent disapprove. Even more
encouraging for Romney is that 41 percent of those polled “strongly”
disapproved of Obama’s economic performance, while just 21 percent
“strongly” approved — an enthusiasm gap of major proportion.<br>
<br>
So Romney’s advisors have concluded that all Romney has to do between
now and Election Day is avoid a mistake that might give Obama and the
Democrats something to shoot at.<br>
<br>
Romney has decided to campaign as the anti-Obama.<br>
<br>
The two anti-the-other-guy strategies fit with a ton of negative
advertising that’s just begun but will reach mammoth proportions after
Labor Day. Much of it will be financed by super-PACs and by political
fronts already taking in hundreds of millions of dollars in secret
donations. Romney’s camp hopes to out-negative Obama by almost two to
one.<br>
<br>
So whatever happens on Election Day, the next president will have to
contend with two handicaps. The public won’t have endorsed any new
ideas or bold plans, which means he won’t have a clear mandate to do
anything on the economy.<br>
<br>
The only thing the public will have decided is it fears and distrusts
the other guy more. Which means the winner will also be burdened by
almost half the electorate thinking he’s a scoundrel or worse.<br>
<br>
The worst economy since the Great Depression, but we’re in an
anti-election that will make it harder for the next occupant of the
oval office to do a thing about it.<br>
<br>
<i>By Robert Reich</i></div>
<div><i><br>
This article was published at NationofChange at: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nationofchange.org/terrible-economy-and-anti-election-2012-1343631484">http://www.nationofchange.org/terrible-economy-and-anti-election-2012-1343631484</a>.
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