Mitt Romney’s new problem: A rising sun

[ProSense]

Mitt Romney’s new problem: A rising sun

By Steve Benen

Mitt Romney was on the campaign trail in South Carolina yesterday, and brought up the issue he expects to ride into the White House: the U.S. economy. Unfortunately for the former governor, the message isn’t quite the same as it was a few months ago.

In his remarks (Friday), Romney also acknowledged the economy was getting better — something he has said before….

“And (President Obama)’s going to say the economy is getting better,” Romney said. “Thank heavens it’s getting better. It’s getting better not because of him, it’s in spite of him and what he’s done.”

For those keeping track, Romney said twice in three sentences that he believes the economy is “getting better.”

I’ve noticed over the last week, this keeps coming up. Shortly before the New Hampshire primary, Romney said he’s “glad” the economy is improving, but quickly added that President Obama “doesn’t deserve” credit...And in a debate for the Republican presidential candidates last weekend, Romney made his case this way:

“The president is going to try to take responsibility for things getting better. It’s like the rooster trying to take responsibility for the sun rising. He didn’t do it.”

I believe campaign professionals call this a “losing argument.”

Look, I don’t know whether the recovery will strengthen in 2012. The recent evidence has been mixed; experts’ projections vary widely...But as a campaign matter, if Romney is right about a strengthening recovery, he has to realize he’s going to lose. For the entirety of 2011, the former governor had a single message he repeated ad nauseum: Obama made a bad economy worse. It wasn’t true, but so long as the recovery was largely invisible, it was a message that could fool a lot of the people a lot of the time.

- more -

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/mitt_romneys_new_problem_a_ris034764.php

[mucifer]

1. I hope it's true that the economy is getting better.

[Crankie Avalon]

2. Yup, what's good for America is bad for Mitt Romney.

Isn't that usually the case?

[jenmito]

3. Yup. I've noticed his changing argument. Now he's saying the economy's improving but

Obama deserves no credit for it. Right-but he DOES deserve blame for it when things seem to be slowing down.

[ProSense]

4. It's crazy. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Mitt and the GOP Tea Party can't have it both ways

The economy was in shambles and getting worse as President Obama took office in January 2009 and then he and the Democrats in Congress got a stimulus pushed through, as well as some smaller initiatives and the net result of it has been the economy slowly but steadily improving and the unemployment rate going down. Presidents don't have total control over something as massive as the US Economy but they undoubtedly have at least some degree of influence, particularly in regards to the regulation of the markets that, say, help prevent (or encourages) the kind of financial meltdown we saw happen in 2008 and the policies that help stimulate growth. I would say speculatively that the economy was always going to rebound somewhat on its own but I'd say that it's pretty likely that the stimulus, if nothing else, helped staunch the bleeding from the 2008 meltdown and kept us from falling off the cliff into the abyss. We'll never really know, unfortunately, how much better things could be now since the GOP Tea Party has helped obstruct a lot of measures that could've had an event greater stimulative effect on the economy. Also, there is evidence that the totally unnecessary war that the GOP Tea Party decided to wage regarding the debt ceiling and the subsequent credit downgrade slowed the momentum of the economic recovery. Mitt has nobody but his own party to blame for THAT fiasco! It's, frankly, incomprehensible, the kind of reality that Mitt is pushing- this bizarre notion that the economy is severely close to no longer being free or that it's getting worse. It may be getting better slowly (largely, I would argue, b/c of GOP obstructionism) but, thankfully, it's not getting worse. Of course, they inhabit their own realities and the rest of us have to live in ours.

[customerserviceguy]

5. It all depends on what happens this year in Europe

And things are not looking too rosy there this last week...

[dawg]

7. They are going to catch pneumonia ...

and we'll catch a cold. I hope it won't be enough to impact the election, but it might be.

[ProSense]

8. That

"It all depends on what happens this year in Europe"

...really doesn't have anything to do with Romney's hypocrisy. He has already contradicted himself.

[customerserviceguy]

9. And the country-clubbers who love him don't care

However, the fundies who will do anything to stick a roadblock in his way are our best hope for a re-election.