Obama's Jobs Strategy

Obama's "jobs" plan appears to present things Republicans want, but also things they don't...but that are of course common sense like tax hikes for the wealthy and regulation for multinational corporations.

Why?

Setting aside the merits of the plan (and I think it's on the right track if not a little underwhelming) I think Obama's strategy is to force Republicans to either: a) vote for this and "co-own" the economy going into an election year, or b) not vote for it and be finally revealed simply as the party of "no to anything Obama proposes" even if the proposals contain things the Republicans say they want. Anybody paying attention would already know this, but many don't pay attention until election time.

In any case, I think it's a solid strategy and probably the type of political hardball that's needed if Obama wants to be re-elected. Put it this way...on the economy, he either runs as the President that has gained consensus and is leading the country forward OR he runs hard against the Republicans for their irrational opposition to their own ideas and as obstacles to progress.

So which response to Obama's plan do you think the R boys and girls will chose?

If you selected "b" from above then you are very likely correct. In fact, I think we've already seen amble evidence that they have no desire whatsoever to play ball with the President. I think their political calculus is...regardless of facts, it is better to run against Obama on a "blame everything on Obama/questions is authenticity" platform (socialist, deficit creator, Muslim, etc.) than it is to run against him after buying into some of his proposals and trying to differentiate on what they would do different in a Republican controlled Congress or White House.

And that's what they'll do.

So, all you Americans out there waiting for some sort of progress on jobs and the economy...it ain't gonna happen because of our government over the next 1.25 years. And lets not forget, conservative government carefully created and hand delivered the national debt, collapsed housing and financial markets, increases in outsourcing and off shoring of jobs and other ills in the seven years they ran everything from 2001 to 2009. Thanks Republican Party.

But in the meantime, the President created the difficult political situation we're witnessing now by himself by spending three years under the wild delusion that he could "work with" Republicans to get things done. This is a fundamental misread of the modern Republican party. He squandered big D majorities in the House and Senate when he had them. THAT was the time to get things done...not now. So, while I am on his side and think his current approach to jobs is correct and feeds nicely into election politics, Obama bears a lot of blame for the inability to get things done now.