For Obama, It’s All About His Campaign

September 22, 2011

Obama Has Spent 2011 Focusing on Campaign to Save His Job Instead of Economic and Debt Crises

President Obama has been the “ever-present president” over the last year, repeatedly making public speeches and touring the country to tout his calls for more failed stimulus spending and more tax increases.
Just 14 months out from November 2012, Obama’s speeches seem more focused on his campaign to keep his job rather than on addressing America’s economic and debt crises.
However, Obama’s political stump speeches have failed to convince Americans that his policies will work a second time around.

BACKGROUND

President Obama has been the “ever-present president” over the last year, repeatedly making public speeches and touring the country to tout his calls for more failed stimulus spending and more tax increases:

OBAMA “THE EVER-PRESENT PRESIDENT” HAS “NEVER BEEN MORE PUBLIC,” YET APPROVAL RATINGS “HAVE TAKEN A TUMBLE”: “President Obama has never been more public.

“Over the last month, he has conducted a flurry of press conferences, speeches and statements aimed at bringing about compromise on the debt ceiling and, in his remarks today, attempting to assuage economic fears following the downgrade of America’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s.

“And yet, even as he has taken on a more and more public persona, Obama’s poll numbers — particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida — have taken a tumble.” (Chris Cillizza, “The Ever-Present President,” The Washington Post, 8/8/2011)

A BRIEF TIMELINE OF “MAJOR” OBAMA SPEECHES IN 2011:

SEP. 19, 2011: OBAMA GIVES DEFICIT SPEECH CALLING FOR $1.5 TRILLION TAX HIKE. (“Remarks by the President on Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction,” The White House,9/19/2011)

SEP. 8, 2011: OBAMA GIVES “MAJOR” JOBS SPEECH CALLING FOR MORE FAILED STIMULUS. (“Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress,” The White House, 9/8/2011)

JULY 25, 2011: OBAMA DEFENDS HIS BIG-SPENDING AGENDA AMIDST DEBT LIMIT NEGOTIATIONS. (“Address by the President to the Nation,” The White House, 7/25/2011)

APRIL 13, 2011: OBAMA ATTEMPTS BUDGET RE-DO. (“Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy,” The White House, 4/13/2011)

FEB. 14, 2011: OBAMA ANNOUNCES FIRST BUDGET. (“Remarks by the President on Unveiling of Budget in Baltimore, Maryland,” The White House, 9/21/2011)

JAN. 25, 2011: STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS WHERE OBAMA CALLS FOR MORE FAILED STIMULUS … ER … “INVESTMENT.” (“Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address,” The White House, 1/25/2011)

Just 14 months out from November 2012, Obama’s speeches seem more focused on his campaign to keep his job rather than on addressing America’s economic and debt crises:

SEP. 19, 2011: REAX TO OBAMA SPEECH CALLING FOR $1.5 TRILLION TAX HIKE:

ABC’s AMY WALTER: “WHEN KIDS ASK, WHEN DID 2012 CAMPAIGN OFFICIALLY BEGIN, YOU CAN TELL THEM 9/19/11 W/ OBAMA’S DEFICIT PROPOSAL.” (Tweet from Amy Walter, ABC News, 9/19/2011)

REUTERS: OBAMA DEFICIT SPEECH “AIMED AT GALVANIZING HIS DEMOCRATIC PARTY BASE AHEAD OF THE NOVEMBER 2012 ELECTION.”(Alister Bull, “Obama Deficit Plan Aimed At Democratic Base,” Reuters, 9/19/2011)

THE WASHINGTON POST’s CHRIS CILIZZA: “CENTRAL DEBATE” OF 2012 ELECTION “BEGAN IN EARNEST THIS MORNING” AS OBAMA “THROWS DOWN THE POLITICAL GAUNTLET.” (Chris Cillizza, “Obama Throws Down the Political Gauntlet on Deficit Fight,” The Washington Post, 9/19/2011)

SEP. 8, 2011 REAX TO OBAMA’S STIMULUS 2.0 SPEECH:

USA TODAY: “AMONG THE JOBS OBAMA HOPES TO SAVE IS HIS OWN.” (Susan Page, “Analysis: Among the Jobs Obama Hopes to Save is His Own,” USA Today, 9/9/2011)

“OBAMA’S JOBS SPEECH KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN.” (Ana Marie Cox, “Obama’s Jobs Speech Kicks Off Campaign,” The Guardian, 9/9/2011)

ABC’s AMY WALTER: “PLENTY OF TIMES DURING TONIGHT’S SPEECH THAT THE PRESIDENT SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS CAMPAIGNING.” (Amy E. Walter, “Analysis: An ‘Urgent’ Obama Tries to Rally Congress Behind Him,” ABC News, 9/8/2011)

THE WASHINGTON POST’S CHRIS CILLIZZA: “FELT AT (MANY) TIMES LIKE THE 2012 CAMPAIGN HAS BEGUN IN EARNEST.” (Tweet from Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post, Accessed 9/8/2011)

CNN’s JOHN KING: “THIS WAS A HUGE POLITICAL SPEECH.” (CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” 9/8/2011)

JULY 25, 2011: REAX TO OBAMA’S DEFENSE OF HIS BIG-SPENDING AGENDA AMIDST DEBT LIMIT NEGOTIATIONS:

THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL: OBAMA’S INSISTENCE ON “PUT[TING] OFF ESCALATING DEBT CRISIS UNTIL AFTER THE 2012 ELECTION IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF POLITICAL SELF-SERVICE. … THE PRIMARY CONCERN APPEARS TO BE RE-ELECTION, AT ANY COST.” (Editorial, “Debt Crisis Fix, Not Re-Election, Job No. 1,” The Albuquerque Journal, 7/26/2011)

POLITICO: OBAMA STUCK TO “THEMES OF 2012 CAMPAIGN,” “CAME AT AN AWKWARD TIME” BY DISRUPTING MOOD FOR COMPROMISE: (Carrie Budoff Brown and Glenn thrush, “Debt Ceiling Speeches: Obama Reasserts Himself, Boehner Pushes Back,” Politico, 7/25/2011)

THE NEW YORK TIMES’ DAVID BROOKS: OBAMA GAVE A “TELEVISED CAMPAIGN SPEECH”: (David Brooks, “Congress in the Lead,” The New York Times, 7/25/2011)

APRIL 13, 2011: REAX TO OBAMA BUDGET RE-DO:

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: OBAMA SPEECH WAS “THE REAL KICKOFF FOR THE 2012 CAMPAIGN” AND “UNABASHEDLY PROGRESSIVE”: (Michael Cohen, “The Post-Post-Partisan Barack Obama: In Debt Speech, the President is Unabashedly Progressive,” New York Daily News, 4/14/2011)

ABC’s AMY WALTER: SPEECH NOT ABOUT “COMING UP WITH A BI-PARTISAN PLAN,” BUT “SETTING UP BATTLE LINES” FOR 2012: (Amy E. Walter, “Analysis: Obama’s Debt Speech Sounded Like Campaign Fare,” ABC News, 4/13/2011)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: “DID SOMEONE MOVE THE 2012 ELECTION TO JUNE 1?”: “Did someone move the 2012 election to June 1? We ask because President Obama’s extraordinary response to Paul Ryan’s budget yesterday—with its blistering partisanship and multiple distortions—was the kind Presidents usually outsource to some junior lieutenant. Mr. Obama’s fundamentally political document would have been unusual even for a Vice President in the fervor of a campaign.” (Editorial Board, “The Presidential Divider,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/14/2011)

THE NEW YORK TIMES: “OBAMA SPEECH DEFENDS LIBERAL PRINCIPLES.” (Michael Shear, “Obama Speech Defends Liberal Principles,” The New York Times, 4/14/2011)

FEB. 14, 2011: REAX TO OBAMA’S FIRST “BUDGET”:

USA TODAY: “IT’S BECOMING HARD NOT TO CONCLUDE THAT OBAMA DOESN’T MUCH CARE ABOUT THE DEBT THREAT OR HAS DECIDED TO WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS.” (Editorial Board, “Our View: Obama’s Budget Ducks Tough Choices,” USA Today, 2/15/2011)

THE HILL: “GOING ALL IN—OBAMA BETS ON ELECTION BUDGET.” (Alexander Bolton, “Going All In—Obama Bets On Election Budget,” The Hill, 2/14/2011)

THE NEW YORK TIMES: BUDGET REFLECTS “A WHITE HOUSE CALCULATION THAT…BOLDNESS COULD BACKFIRE” AND WOUND “A PRESIDENT FACING RE-ELECTION NEXT YEAR.” (Jackie Calmes, “A Cautious Approach Seeking Bipartisan Appeal,” The New York Times, 2/14/2011)

JAN. 25, 2011: REAX TO STATE OF THE UNION:

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: “LINES DRAWN, AND EYES ON 2012,” OBAMA “CHALLENGES GOP FOR THIS YEAR’S AGENDA, RE-ELECTION.” (Paul West, “Lines Drawn, And Eyes on 2012,” The Chicago Tribune, 1/26/2011)

MCCLATCHY: “OBAMA’S BIG SPEECH FRAMES THE 2012 ELECTION CAMPAIGN.”(Margaret Talev, “Obama’s Big Speech Frames the 2012 Election Campaign,” McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 1/25/2011)

THE BOSTON HERALD: SOTU “WAS THE UNOFFICIAL START OF CAMPAIGN 2012”:(Editorial, “Back to the Future,” The Boston Herald, 1/26/2011)

However, Obama’s political stump speeches have failed to convince Americans that his policies will work a second time around:

GALLUP/USA TODAY POLL: 80% SAY U.S. IN RECESSION, 60% SAY ECONOMY WILL BE SAME OR WORSE IN A YEAR AND A MAJORITY BLAME OBAMA: “Twenty-four percent say Obama deserves a great deal of the blame, up 10 points since 2009. For the first time since he took office, a majority of Americans — including six in 10 independents — say he deserves a great deal or moderate amount of blame for the nation’s economic woes.” (Susan Page, “Poll: Economic Pessimism Deepens, and More Blame Obama,” USA Today, 9/21/2011)

MCCLATCHY/MARIST POLL: BY 49% TO 36% MARGIN, VOTERS SAY THEY WILL “DEFINITELY” VOTE AGAINST OBAMA,” INCLUDING 53% OF INDYS. (“39% Approval for Obama, Lowest of Presidency,” Marist Poll, 9/20/2011)

ONLY 28% OF INDYS SAY THEY WILL DEFINITELY VOTE FOR OBAMA. : (“39% Approval for Obama, Lowest of Presidency,” Marist Poll, 9/20/2011)

69% OF INDYS DISAPPROVE OF OBAMA ON ECONOMY: (“39% Approval for Obama, Lowest of Presidency,” Marist Poll, 9/20/2011)

CBS/NEW YORK TIMES: ONLY 25% SAY OBAMA HAS “MADE PROGRESS IN FIXING THE ECONOMY,” 68% SAY NO; AT 57% DISAPPROVAL ON THE ECONOMY: (“Grim Views of the Economy, the President and Congress,” CBS News/New York Times Poll, 9/16/2011)