To have an honest discussion, I have some advice for President Obama. Clearly, the odds are stacked against him. If this were an incumbent Republican President, I know people like myself and Keystone Phil and Inks would be saying in conversations almost jokingly, "You know we have no shot, right?" to which an agreeing chuckle would follow. This was much the case throughout 2007 and 2008 when despite the ups and downs we all knew it was over. Indeed, on election night when Ohio was called for Obama, I remember being on the phone with Keystone Phil to which he laughed and said, "Ohio was called ALREADY!?!" and laughed. It was an acknowledgment of defeat that we knew was coming. Indeed, the Obama/Biden ticket is in much the same situation and I think insiders know it.
A few tips.
#1. Acknowledge the bad economy
When Obama tries to say things are tough but getting better, people don't believe him. Honestly, every few months things seem worse. Someone you know can't afford to buy a house, someone you know complains about high gas prices, tax season comes and knocks someone out. Every time they hear Barack Obama say things are "getting better" they get irritated. It's like someone having a broken leg with the bone sticking out and you saying, "It's okay, no big deal". Their response would be, "IT IS A BIG DEAL MY BONE IS STICKING OUT OF LEG YOU IDIOT!!!" I know it's a silly analogy, but it's true.
The only time Carter had a real shot of defeating Governor Reagan in 1980 was when he made acknowledgments of the bad situation and tried to offer new solutions. If Obama says things are getting better, or that we need to spend more money, it's done. Toast. Adios. Buona sera.
A compound fracture is dangerous. But that said, you cannot get away with trivializing the reality of a bad economy. "He will make things worse" is good mostly for telling people "I told you so" after things really go bad and the damage is irreversible.
Things are going better, but mostly for people that most Americans don't give a d@mn about, the sorts of people who claim to be the job-creators because they buy the yachts and caviar.
Corporations are money-making machines. They are NOT people. Most employees fear and dread their bosses and the corporate bureaucracy for what they can do -- which is to cast them off as if they were used packaging material. Giant corporations treating people badly while highly profitable deserve contempt for their amorality and will get it.
The Republicans don't disbelieve in jobs; they simply want the jobs to pay much less and for employees to be even more under the iron heel of brutal management. It's easy to create jobs if the jobs have no pay, as shown in one central-European country in the 1930s.
The solution for Democrats is to not be "GOP Lite" but instead to offer the opportunity for high-paying work that itself sustains an economy... and that means a new Stimulus that the GOP now makes impossible. It's the people who do the work that matter, and not the well-connected and insulated elites who matter.
Don't ridicule the costumes, and certainly don't ridicule the infamous talking points. The Tea Party strength to now has been to force some glittering generality to be the end of the conversation. Democrats must force Tea Party politicians to explain what the talking points mean. As Sarah Palin so demonstrates, when anyone tries to explain what the talking points means or how their objectives are to be achieved, one gets a muddle that shows that the Tea Party type has no idea of what he is talking about or can't think beyond a pat slogan.
Everyone is for more jobs, but at what price? Oblige the Hard Right to explain how. "End of discussion" implies that something remains hidden because exposing it would show something ugly. Maybe the jobs aren't paid, or the pay is basically "two meals and a cot in a dormitory". China has that.
Slogans will
