The most important issue in the presidential election of 2012...

[kentuck]

It is not just about the state of the economy.

Rather, it is about who caused the mess and who is best to fix it? Those are separate issues.

If the Republicans can pin all the economic problems on Barack Obama, then they will probably win the White House. If Barack Obama is able to convince the voters that all the problems in state budgets and in the national budget were created by previous policies that the same Republicans want to try again, then he could be successful in his re-election bid.

It is not just about the economy, it is about who can define the problem with the economy in the most honest and convincing manner.

To be honest, the President under-estimated the damage done by George W Bush and the big-spending, big tax-cutting, and no-regulations Republicans. The damage was deep and long-lasting. We have been fortunate to escape another great depression up to this point. However, that is a very difficult argument to sell to the voters.

Who will the voters believe? That is the question. Shouldn't the President have been able to fix the problems created by Bush by now? The Republicans will argue that the economy was bad but that the President made them worse. The President will have to find a counter to that argument if he hopes to remain in the White House.

The issue is about more than just the economy. It is about who can define it in the most persuasvie way for the voters. It is no easy task.

.

[Vincardog]

1. BO can not attack the policies of gWb because he has pursued the SAME policies. That is the problem

[Bluenorthwest]

2. We were ordered to turn the page, forget the guilty and look

forward. He who refuses to punish evil commands it to occur.

[libinnyandia]

3. A majority seems to still blame Bush for much

of the problem with the economy. Will they give the keys back to those who drove the economy into the ditch? I'm hoping the voters get sick of "tax cuts for the wealthy abd deregulation" I'm hoping that what has happened in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida will make the voters in those swing states unwilling to give the GOP control on the federal level. With the Senate so dysfuntional that 41 Senators can block legislation it's hard to br optimistic.

[broiles]

4. THE most important issue is

Who will keep us out of a stupid war with Iran.

[Ship of Fools]

5. Don't agree.

Obama was delivering the "car off the cliff" analogy quite a while ago. His stimulus was too small, according
to the experts (of which I am not one). But if all things had been equal -- that is to say that the
Rs weren't pathological twits with Sarah *death panels* Palin leading the charge, there are any number of things
that could have been done to help right the ship: more stimulus, up taxes on the wealthy, draw-down in Iraq, tax on
Wall Street transactions, etc., and therefore we wouldn't be grinding our collective teeth at this point.

The only thing I blame the current president for is not seeing the forest for the trees SOON ENOUGH. The dialogue
quickly went extreme right -- practically right out of the gate -- tempered only mildly by OWS.

If we get a Romney or, gawds forbid, a Cain in 2012 -- and/or we get an R Senate -- we deserve every.last.minute.of.it.
If we can hold on and Obama is given the opportunity to initiate a more leftward agenda (yes, I believe he has always had one),
then perhaps we can pull Warren in, in 2016. I believe that is what he meant about his leadership being transformational.
Had he come out wildly swinging, four years later we would be the pulled to the right again. He has been waiting for us to
get off our collective asses. Organizing and voting for him was just the beginning. Completing the agenda is going to take YEARS.

These are strictly the opinions of one woman, albeit a completely under-informed woman until 2008. So, flame away.
I will, however, defend to the death my intuition. You can come back and snark all you want to four years from now, if I'm dead wrong
and you are so inclined, but net neutrality may be a bygone memory by then. Just sayin'.