Romney Advisers: Bad Economy Not Enough to Sink the President

      This is the larger context to Romney's "joke" about the President's birth certificate on Friday. There is a realization that

      1) The economy is not bad enough for voters to sack the President

      2) Even if it were truly a bad economy rather than one recovering too slowly, it might still not be enough. People like the President and they don't see him as having the main culpability even now.

      So, they have gone to Plan B. They see that they won't ever be able to reach Hispanic voters or women, and so they are going to focus on "white, working-class" voters in swing states. These are voters who are disaffected with the President-and as far as this disaffection is concerned, let's just say that his race surely doesn't help with such voters; I have come across people in my own interactions who honestly seem to think that they did some great sacrifice by voting for the black guy last election and now you can't hit them with the "race card" if they hate him now.

      Yet, if they are disaffected with the President, they are not entirely won over by Mitt Romney. This shows that they are not total lost causes, perhaps. They don't like Mitt, a point in their favor. Indeed, Mitt Romney is the guy who: nobody likes.

      http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/the_rumble/2012/08/who-is-mitt-romney-democratic-attacks-are-increasingly-defining-him

       "The battleground map has remained remarkably stable in recent months, which leaves Mr. Obama with more paths to winning 270 electoral votes and places a burden on Mr. Romney to break through in states where he so far has not. But Republicans suddenly see encouraging signs in Wisconsin after the selection of Representative Paul D. Ryan as his running mate. Mr. Romney’s chances hinge to a large degree on running up his advantage among white voters in swing states who show deep strains of opposition to Mr. Obama but do not yet trust Mr. Romney to look out for their interests, Republican strategists say."

      "Many of those voters are economically disaffected, and the Romney campaign has been trying to reach them with appeals built around an assertion that Mr. Obama is making it easier for welfare recipients to avoid work. The Romney campaign is airing an advertisement falsely charging that Mr. Obama has “quietly announced” plans to eliminate work and job training requirements for welfare beneficiaries, a message Mr. Romney’s aides said resonates with working-class voters who see government as doing nothing for them."

     "The moves reflect a campaign infused with a sharper edge and overtones of class and race. On Friday, Mr. Romney said at a rally that no one had ever had to ask him about his birth certificate, and Mr. Ryan invoked his Catholicism and love of hunting. Democrats angrily said Mr. Romney’s remark associated him with the fringe “birther” camp seeking falsely to portray Mr. Obama as not American."

       http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us/politics/mitt-romneys-campaign-adopts-a-harder-message.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

      Turns out that Karl Rove and company have discovered in their focus group studies that too many middle class voters are "seduced."

       "The strategic shift in the campaign message that has been unfolding in recent weeks reflects a conclusion among Mr. Romney’s advisers that disappointment with Mr. Obama’s economic stewardship is not sufficient to propel Mr. Romney to victory on its own."

       "Republican strategists said that many middle-class voters had proved reluctant to give up entirely on Mr. Obama, and that they still needed to be convinced that Mr. Romney would look out for their interests.

Steven J. Law, the president of the conservative group American Crossroads, said some swing voters in focus groups had helped explain why support for Mr. Obama had not collapsed despite his poor marks on the economy."

      “They’re somewhat seduced by the thought, ‘If the guy had more time, maybe he’d be able to turn it around,’ ” said Mr. Law, whose group is spending tens of millions of dollars to change that."

       Is it that they are seduced? Or just have functioning brain cells? I'm glad people actually realize that he hasn't really had a lot of time considering the severity of the problem. Sure nobody in the Post-War era has won re-election with an unemployment rate above 7.2%. But this is downturn is worse than anything we have previously seen during the Post-War era-it's  the worst since the Depression. 

     

      And recall that FDR in 1936 was the last President to win with an unemployment rate above 7.2%. And we are a lot better off than Europe and Britain. Indeed, I would go as far as suggest that if Mitt Romney had been President during these four years we'd have an economy that looked much more like Britain under the Conservative austerity loving David Cameron.