Thursday, for those lacking the official Re-election Campaign Theme of the Week Calendar, marked the official beginning of the president’s “Betting on America” campaign bus tour through the Rust Belt. The false choice he is promoting on his two-day swing through northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania is between himself—a professed champion of the American way and work ethic—and opponent Mitt Romney, whom he is attempting to brand as a potential “outsourcer in chief.”
The irony of a betting theme will not be lost on those who recall Obama’s warning in 2010 to families of college-age children that “you don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” The president should have heeded his own advice, retooling the when clause to read “when you’re trying to rescue an economy drowning in debt and joblessness.” But blow a bunch of cash he did, first on Solyndra, then on Ener1, most recently on solar-panel manufacturer Nevada Geothermal Power, which reports mounting losses that may force it to file for bankruptcy.
The question the Obamans should be asking is not whether Americans are willing to bet on their nation—the best of us always are—but whether they are willing to bet on another four years of Obama.
