Romney 2012?

Wake me when it's over.

Romney seems unable and/or unwilling to fix has popularity slide. For this and other gaffes, I'm grateful. To say that issues are being soft-pedaled is an understatement. Where's Ross Perot when you need him?

[edit: Oh crap! Perot endorsed Mitt Romney for President. ]

On the other hand, expectations for the debates are incredibly high for Obama and incredibly low for Romney. Romney could 'win' simply by hanging on for dear life and thereby exceeding expectations.

I expect we will see about a thousand "uh"s from Obama over the course of the 3 debates.

When consumption and investment are not powering the economy, the government sector has to fill the gap with stimulus to boost consumer demand. Much of the economy’s flat performance since 2011 reflects insufficient stimulus, reinforcing insufficient demand. That means sluggish job growth, lackluster pay and persistently weak demand. It’s not a downward spiral, but it is self-reinforcing stagnation.

Politics, however, has gotten in the way of even basic moves to push the economy upward.

Responding to the latest employment report, the White House noted correctly that major areas of job weakness — including positions in construction and teaching — are precisely those that would have been the subject of the jobs bill proposed in 2011 by President Obama. That legislation was blocked by Congressional Republicans.

Mitt Romney responded to the July report by saying that the numbers reflect the failure of Mr. Obama’s policies when, in reality, they reflect the success of the Republican obstructionism.

Yaknow, you mentioned something similar in the debate thread the other day. Do you really not remember that Obama won every debate he's been in, on the national level? That he creamed McCain in all three debates?

His past performances don't match up with the image you're presenting here.

Cycloptichorn

McG, The 'proven failure" resurrected the auto industry which was on the ropes,

turned around the death spiral of the Great Recession

saved the American economy and started it back upward

took the first giant steps in reforming health care and making it work for everyone

and found and gave the order to do away with Osama binLaden. All in the face of relentless opposition

from today's NYT:

Quote:

When consumption and investment are not powering the economy, the government sector has to fill the gap with stimulus to boost consumer demand. Much of the economy’s flat performance since 2011 reflects insufficient stimulus, reinforcing insufficient demand. That means sluggish job growth, lackluster pay and persistently weak demand. It’s not a downward spiral, but it is self-reinforcing stagnation.

Politics, however, has gotten in the way of even basic moves to push the economy upward.

Responding to the latest employment report, the White House noted correctly that major areas of job weakness — including positions in construction and teaching — are precisely those that would have been the subject of the jobs bill proposed in 2011 by President Obama. That legislation was blocked by Congressional Republicans.

Mitt Romney responded to the July report by saying that the numbers reflect the failure of Mr. Obama’s policies when, in reality, they reflect the success of the Republican obstructionism.

By telling business people that they didn't make their business,

Some good stuff, some bad stuff.

Remember, this is just SIX MONTHS after 9/11. In response to a reporters question, President Bush tells the world that he is "truly not that concerned" with catching the man who murdered 3,000 Americans just six months and two days earlier because "we've marginalized him."

Please note that he ALMOST says "I don't know where he is, nor do I... (really care)." but catches himself in mid-sentence.

"He hides in caves while sending young people off to die."

Economists Agree: The Stimulus Worked
Posted on 07/24/2012 at 3:15 pm by JM Ashby
Bloomberg ran a column yesterday debunking the entire economic argument against the policies of President Obama titled “The U.S. Economic Policy Debate is a Sham,” and, not surprisingly, a poll conducted by the University of Chicago found very few economists that agree with the opposition.

The first and most obvious result they found was that economists agree the stimulus worked, but for the purposes of this campaign, the latter is probably more important.

Let’s start with Obama’s stimulus. The standard Republican talking point is that it failed, meaning it didn’t reduce unemployment. Yet in a survey of leading economists conducted by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, 92 percent agreed that the stimulus succeeded in reducing the jobless rate. On the harder question of whether the benefit exceeded the cost, more than half thought it did, one in three was uncertain, and fewer than one in six disagreed.

Neither does the quote mention that during the first two years of the Obama Admin the Dems had complete control of the executive and legislative branches of government and could have passed any legislation they wanted.