{"id":28473,"date":"2014-10-11T02:45:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=28473"},"modified":"2014-10-11T01:46:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:46:21","slug":"obama-wants-an-election-about-the-economy-but-its-hard-not-to-make-it-about-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/11\/obama-wants-an-election-about-the-economy-but-its-hard-not-to-make-it-about-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama wants an election about the economy, but it\u2019s hard not to make it about him"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"U.S.<\/a>
U.S. President Barack Obama. Photo courtesy of Barack Obama’s official Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA MONICA, Calif.\u2014President Barack Obama is all in with his economic pitch. The American public is not. Over the next 27 days, either the public or the president is going to get the message.<\/p>\n

In a midterm campaign strategy fraught with risk, the White House is betting that Obama\u2019s tight embrace of the economic recovery and populist proposals for gender pay equity and a higher minimum wage will galvanize his core supporters and persuade fence-sitting independents to help Democrats retain narrow control of the Senate in November.<\/p>\n

Addressing young entrepreneurs Thursday at a startup centre in California, Obama highlighted his economic record for the third time in eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of you entered into the workforce during the worst financial crisis and then the worst recession since the Great Depression,\u201d he told the gathering of mostly millennials, those born after 1980. \u201cYou are coming out of this recession with the best educated, most diverse, most digitally fluent generation in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

While noting that he\u2019s not on the ballot in this election, Obama has become fond of saying that his policies are at stake. The line has prompted a reflexive flinch from Democrats who are trying to fend off a concerted Republican campaign to link Democratic opponents to the president.<\/p>\n

For Democrats, the problem is not Obama\u2019s message; it\u2019s the pitchman. \u201cThe messenger is not the most popular guy on the planet right now,\u201d said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.<\/p>\n

Public opinion polls show substantial support for Obama\u2019s proposals to raise the minimum wage, seek pay equity for women and close corporate tax loopholes. But on the economic issues he\u2019s most associated with\u2014the fitful recovery from the Great Recession and his health care law\u2014the American public is not with him.<\/p>\n

A September AP-GfK poll found 40 per cent approve and 58 per cent disapprove of his handling of the economy, and that 41 per cent approve and 58 per cent disapprove of his handling of health care. Overall, Obama\u2019s national approval ratings are 44 per cent, compared to 51 per cent who disapprove, according to the latest numbers from Gallup.<\/p>\n

That said, Obama does have an economic story to tell. Unemployment has dropped from a high of 10 per cent in 2009 to 5.9 per cent last month. The economy grew last quarter at a better clip than many expected. The stock market has rallied to record highs. He inherited a federal deficit of more than a trillion dollars; the deficit has been cut by more than half to $486 billion.<\/p>\n

But, to the frustration of the White House, that message hasn\u2019t gained much traction against a headwind of nearly stagnant wage growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn awful lot of Americans, they read in the paper that the economy is growing, but they haven\u2019t seen their own paychecks advance, they haven\u2019t seen their old opportunities grow and they haven\u2019t seen their own children get good job offers,\u201d GOP pollster Whit Ayres said.<\/p>\n

Ayres recently conducted a joint poll with Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg for NPR and discovered that in states with closely contested Senate races, both Republicans and Democratic voters were equally energized<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the independents in those states,\u201d he said. \u201cThe independents are going to be moved more than anything else by the reality of the economy they feel in their daily lives. At least at this point, far too few have felt a significant recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a point not lost on the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the economy is growing, productivity is growing, wages and income have been flat,\u201d Obama said Thursday. \u201cAnd so the gains in the economy, not just over the last six years but really over the last 20, have more and more been going to the top of the economic pyramid.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Obama is also pushing his proposals to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, to ensure equal pay for women, to overhaul the immigration laws and provide universal pre-school for children as an effort to create contrasts with Republicans who have opposed those efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president does believe there is a clear choice for voters across the country between candidates who are supportive of policies that will benefit the middle class, and candidates who are supportive of policies that will benefit those at the top in the hopes that the benefits will trickle down to the middle class,\u201d White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Obama was aiming his pitch to young people born after 1980, an age group that has been reluctant to vote in nonpresidential contests.<\/p>\n

Obama was to hold a town hall at Cross Campus, a Santa Monica, California, hub for startup companies and entrepreneurs, where he was to highlight policies such as college aid and health care that officials say have especially benefited members of the millennial generation.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s speech is one of several White House efforts to draw the attention of demographic groups that are crucial components of the Democratic voting coalition, including women, African-Americans and Latinos.<\/p>\n

But as he promotes the economy and his policies, Obama faces yet another disadvantage: Of the 10 closest Senate contests, seven are in states he lost in 2012.<\/p>\n

As a result, he has been forced to make his case from a distance, as he did Thursday in California.<\/p>\n

Kuhnhenn reported from Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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