Kuwait Times

Published Date: July 29, 2010
By Ross Colvin

In the face of stubbornly high unemployment and grim poll numbers, the White House is struggling to find a workable strategy for selling US President Barack Obama's economic successes to voters. The White House has launched "Recovery Summer," whose central message to Americans appears to be, "We know you're still suffering, but things could have been worse." In an event aimed at reminding voters of the administration's earlier successes, Obama will visit auto plants in Michigan on Friday to tout the thousa
nds of jobs that were saved in his taxpayer bailout of automakers in 2009.

But, with millions of Americans still out of work, voters are in no mood to give Obama credit for past achievements even though many economists agree his $862 billion stimulus package was crucial in turning around the economy after the 2007-2009 financial meltdown under his predecessor George W Bush. Economists and political analysts say Obama will struggle between now and congressional midterm elections in November to change Americans' perceptions when the unemployment rate is 9.5 percent and house and st
ock prices have yet to regain their pre-crisis levels.

The White House's focus on selling the benefits of Obama's stimulus measures enacted in 2009 is a sign that it accepts there is little new it can do to quickly bring down the high unemployment rate. "There is not a heck of a lot he can do other than to say if we hadn't done this, things would have been worse," said Stephen Wayne, a professor of American government at Georgetown University who is completing a book on Obama.

Despite major legislative victories that will lead to sweeping overhauls of the ailing U.S. healthcare system and the way Wall Street does business, Obama's public approval rating is steadily dropping, a bad omen for fellow Democrats heading into tough congressional elections in November. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed satisfaction with Obama's management of the economy has eroded steeply and his approval rating has dropped to 48 percent.

Presidents, fairly or unfairly, take responsibility for conditions on the ground," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office under President Bush and now head of a conservative think tank. "That is good news when the economy is booming, bad news if it's not, even if you've done everything you think you can to improve it. It is part and parcel of the job." The White House appears to be bracing itself for a beating by frustrated voters in November, when all 435 seats in
the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be in play. Democrats control both houses of Congress.

If you call up somebody who has lost their job, or you call up somebody whose neighbor has lost their job, or whose brother or sister has lost their job, and ask them how the economy is going, or how they view the president, they're likely to be negative," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "That's quite rational and understandable.

In addition to the stimulus package, the White House has been working with Congress to enact measures that provide employers with incentives to hire or retain workers. Obama urged the Senate last week to pass a small-business jobs plan that has been a subject of partisan wrangling. The president acknowledges he faces an uphill task in convincing Americans his policies are actually helping them. "You know, even if you hear the president say we're on the right track and we've improved, you're still going to
be frustrated about how slow the progress is," Obama said in a television interview last week.

But critics say Obama has done too little to create jobs and is now paying the price. While he was victorious in passing the historic healthcare and Wall Street reforms, they were a costly distraction that consumed too much of his time and energy, they argue. "It is perceived that he has too many other things going on that people do not regard as the central problem," said Barry Bosworth, a fiscal and monetary policy expert at Brookings Institution and former adviser to President Jimmy Carter.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans interviewed in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said Obama had taken his eye off the ball on jobs and the economy to concentrate on less important issues. While polls signal Democratic losses in the November election, Obama has not lost his chance of re-election in 2012. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were in similar economic predicaments in 1982 and 1993 respectively but both won a second term. "If unemployment drops to 8 percent his political fortunes will shine brightl
y in 2012. If the unemployment rate rises, he is going to be in tough waters," said Stephen Howell, a professor of American politics at the University of Chicago. - Reuters