Weekly Open Thread – Obama’s Economy Edition

Officially, the recession ended two and a half years ago. President Obama tells us the economy has been moving in the right direction since June 2009.

Few will take solace in that statistic. Americans are suffering. For nearly three years, nearly one in 10 have been out of work. Almost double that number are either underemployed—working part time when they would rather be full time—or have simply given up looking.

Obama re-election theme: Champion of the middle class [Reader Post]

The new “strategerie”

…increasingly, Obama and his aides have switched to a longer view, trying to focus attention on what they portray as the president’s defense of the middle class…The theme of giving the middle class a “fair shot” potentially works against whoever survives the demolition derby among the Republican hopefuls…The “fair shot” theme also provides a more positive message than previous Obama formulations, which some analysts saw as harder-edged attacks on the wealthy.

Greed vs. Giving… Trickle down charity is a recipe for real long term success [Reader Post]

Rush Limbaugh caused a bit of a stir recently when he asked the question: “What do you think has fed more mouths, greed or charity?” The question seemed particularly untoward given that Christmas was right around the corner. Who besides Gordon Gekko might ask such a ludicrous question? Rush, obviously… and it turns out that it’s not such a ludicrous question after all.

Obama Campaign Strategy: Crystal Ball, Unicorns and Houdini Economics

McClatchy’s Christi Parsons and David Lauter may have thought they were penning a breaking news story when they announced that Obama is shifting the debate about his economic performance to focusing on rhetoric about that endangered species, known as the middle class. This is news? If it weren’t his only obvious choice, considering his unacceptable record of fiscal leadership, Ronald Brownstein already announced his intent to KISS (i.e. keep it simple, stupid) with the predictable tired phrases at the beginning of November…

… and it wasn’t a surprise then either.

This election is all about “it’s the economy, stupid”. The Gallup Poll released Dec 22, containing historic trends for US Satisfaction since 1985, doesn’t contain much good news for the temporary denizen of the Oval Office. The “dissatisfied” meter was pegging at 84%, with a pathetic 15% thinking life is just dandy. This is just 4 points better than the 88% dissatisfaction rate three years ago, Dec 2008, at the height of the crash.

Here’s another problem for the community organizer… the class warfare rhetoric isn’t resonating too well either.