President Obama came to the White House with big plans. He’d halve the deficit. Strengthen the economy. Lower unemployment. What did we get? National Debt over 15 trillion and climbing. Unemployment above 8 percent for 40 straight months. An ongoing economic crisis with no end in sight. He tried. You tried. It’s OK to make a change. – RNC ad transcript
MITT ROMNEY’S foreign policy tour has gone as bad as it can get. That he wasn’t doing anything except trying to look presidential makes it worse. But will any of it matter?
During the cascade of events that had Mr. Romney going from one gaffe to another I asked myself the question that titles this post. A reader put it another way in the comments.
I wonder how much any of this minutiae will matter if the economy doesn’t improve. – reader PWT in a comment
Mitt Romney should already be ahead with the economy this listless, but he isn’t and we saw why illustrated in his lack of political pitch in London to his insulting diplomatic comments about the Palestinians, with his negatives even higher than Obama’s, which have risen 5 points with all the negative ads he’s doing. It’s why Team Obama crafted “The Choice.”
The other side of that is that Pres. Obama wouldn’t be in this mess if he’d decided to craft an economic message a long time ago that threaded from TARP through the stimulus and health care and into the middle class wage fights instead of always weighting compromise toward conservatism, which meant following the Tea Party as they dragged Republicans around by their lost principles. But then that would mean he’d be someone other than who he is.
Answers to questions like the ones above won’t be known until after Election Day.
What we do know is that Romney’s foreign policy tour was ill-planned and not thought out and his briefings were obviously not very good.
What we also know is voters aren’t impressed with anyone this election and who can blame them?
But to change from an incumbent, the challenger must offer a pretty solid case he’s competent on matters that include being commander in chief. However, bad economic times makes the bar on foreign policy a lot lower.
Team Romney knows that foreign policy is a very weak point with their candidate, which is why they decided on the current trip in the first place. Epitomized by Team Romney’s “shove it,” the entire narrative doesn’t help and Romney, as the challenger to the incumbent, can’t keep adding negatives.
Yet the economics of the election remain against Pres. Obama.
If Romney’s team quickly switches to a “referendum” on the Obama presidency after their convention, they’ll have the money to start pounding Obama, which absolutely has the potential of bringing the race back in his favor. Unless, of course, the Republican convention is a boring bust.
Democrats have San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro keynoting the convention, with Elizabeth Warren the opening act for Pres. Bill Clinton on another night, who will nominate Pres. Obama.
Meanwhile, Romney’s stiff deliberating over Sarah Palin’s presence, coupled with the vice presidential nominee, after his disastrous foreign policy trip, loom larger than ever.
Obama can lose this election.
Romney can do a lot to make that happen, with the RNC ad above a path to help, but not how he and his team are performing right now.
A reader of my piece over at TMV titled “Romney Foreign Policy Tour Turns Into Gaffe Watch,” wrote something that emphasizes the Republican National Committee ad perfectly:
Seriously, Obama is a nice guy, but so is a drunken sailor with a months pay on shore leave for the weekend. I know Romney stinks, especially around here, but some people who think we are headed for bankruptcy will decide to gamble on a different horse, not named hope and change. – TMV reader dduck
Pres. Obama’s waited a long to time craft an economic message and begin convincing the American people he knows what he’s doing. That’s always been an issue and it isn’t going away.
Makes me think of the Bill Murray speach in “Meatballs”, ‘It just doesn’t matter…’
People have a very short attention span, especially when they’re staring at their bank balance or feeling job insecurity.
You could be right.
Romney may be the worst candidate in the world yet he keeps winning. Rick Perry had $20 million in his pocket and could not knock out Mitt. Newt was stopped in his own back yard by Mitt. Santorum and Paul were stopped with cash by Mitt. I don’t take lightly boxers that don’t lose. Ask “Iron Mike” about Buster Douglas.
I started out thinking that Mitt wasn’t so bad, after all he was a fairly moderate Gov for MA. After watching him on the big stage for this long I now think he would be an un mitigated disaster. The man honestly has no clue outside of his class. His “It’s cultural…” comment in Israel was chilling because IMHO it was very revealing to his inner thinking.
What a crying shame the Dems have so little to offer…I have not heard one who is running or supporting the president able to make the case for government. Paul Kruggman makes a far more compelling case than any of the Dems.
I just wish that the Dems could leap over Obama at the convention and aclaim Elizabeth Warren the nominee.She would go to the people everytime the Rethugs obstructed, she would also have a working justice department frying bigger fish than professional ball players who juice.
Elizabeth Warren has such a great message.
She’s neck and neck with Scott Brown, who could pull of a win.
For my money, all the energy being spent on Pres. Obama should be turned towards her. She’s really going to need it to win.
I’m going to take turn down this way:
I wonder how much it matters whoever wins the Presidency this year??
As I’ve stated before, I don’t have much “faith” (notice the quotes) that Obama or Romney can handle what’s happening in this economy. This Great Correction that we are under is still correcting. Gas will never go back down to the “just take a ride whenever” days. Food costs are rising. House prices are lowering (and I suspect some number fudging is happening). Job growth is just weird and sporadic AND no one’s talking about new industries and training solutions. Let’s examine new industries or better yet, the new jobs environment with a question:
How do you turn a former blue collar worker into a new economy white collar worker? For example, there are a relatively large number of jobs out their for Information Technology (IT) Business Analysts. People that can listen to a client/customer and turn their requirements into a SOLUTION. Starting salary is $75k to $80k easy. And you can earn much more at a senior level. Companies are begging for these types that have cross IT business and technical experience with the ability to clearly communicate. This is a cross functional job. So how do you turn a former auto worker into that? That’s just one example since we will most likely NEVER be as manufacturing focused as before. The jobs are in SERVICES. Yet if i asked both Obama and Romney that question, they will talk about training. O…K…. It costs to train not to mention that education is a business and there are many hustles out there. But even if we take a less complex job but still skilled like a Macy’s Store Manager, how you will train? And how can I forget the straight number of new economy jobs compared to old economy jobs. While there are many IT Business Analysts jobs out there, it is does not equal the sheer volume that manufacturing had (and associated industries like real estate).
Now some are saying, T-Steel why are you picking more higher paying jobs when those manufacturing workers would have a hard time getting them? BECAUSE they were used to making $65k to $80k (especially in the auto industry). I’m doing a salary like-for-like. So the solution is to tell them, “your going to earn much less and deal with it”? Not going to fly. Just “dealing with it” is a solution for the small things. When a person’s earning power is effectively slashed in half or more, there is no “deal with it”. There is only “spiraling down”.
Obama and Romney (and many in Congress) don’t want to touch what I wrote about because it requires flexible, creative, visionary, non-partisan thinking. ‘Nuff said.
Here’s some interesting tidbits about where segments of the economy are going:
https://www.elance.com/q/online-employment-report
Interesting…
T-steel…what you said was a brilliant analysis of what is going on…have you heard about Geoff Faux’s new book, “The Servant Economy ” ? I am going to read it as soon as I finish Chris Hayes, “Twilight of the Elites.”
Great analysis, T-Steel. Spot on. And Lake Lady–I agree with you as well.
Finally, Taylor, I am glad you posted this because I really doubt that what is going on with the campaigns right now really matters or will have much impact on what happens in November. Most people aren’t paying attention right now and are more worried about making ends meet and watching the Olympics than what is going on elsewhere on the world stage. They will probably start waking up after the conventions and then what happens WILL matter.
I can see the writing on the wall with the D-I-C-K Cheney’s (yes, the ex-VP who is guilty of war crimes) recent pounding on Obama as being weak like Jimmy Carter.
If the Republicans can get their act together by September and launch an ad campaign that effectively marries Obama’s weakness to that of Jimmy Carter, the I think Ann Romney can start gathering bids for building the barn for her dressage horses somewhere on the property of the White House and get the rest of us taxpayers to foot the bill…