Thursday, September 9, 2010

Obama Launches Fall Fight

President Barack Obama capped a rollout of new economic policies with a combative speech Wednesday that tipped the Democratic plan for the fall campaign: attack the Republicans' policies and try to monopolize the economic message until Election Day.

Speaking at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio, the president gave his second aggressive campaign address of the past few days—delivering a speech that was part mea culpa, part policy address but mainly red meat for a Democratic base that party officials fear will sleep through the Nov. 2 vote. He conceded that his policies have "fed the perception that Washington is still ignoring the middle class." But he castigated Republican opponents for believing, "If I fail, they win."

"If we're willing again to choose hope over fear, to choose the future over the past, to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy, rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American dream for the next generation," he said, striking the revival-like cadences that buoyed his presidential bid.

The speech was billed as a major policy address to kick-start a flagging economy. The president formally announced three proposals the White House had hinted were coming: $50 billion in infrastructure spending; expanding and making permanent the lapsed research tax credit for business; and a measure allowing businesses to write 100% of their investment costs off their taxes through 2011.

Republicans labeled the economic proposals a new try at a failed policy, and instead urged him to extend all of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, not just those for the middle class. "The White House is doubling down on a job-killing plan when millions of unemployed Americans are looking for relief," said Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch.

But Mr. Obama's address was far more about politics than economics. The policies he has announced have been met with indifference by many embattled Democratic candidates, if not outright disapproval.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the Democrats' candidate for an open Ohio Senate seat, said he wanted a job-creation tax credit. "I also wish we had seen all these proposals much sooner," he said. And Sen. Michael Bennet (D, Colo.), who is locked in a difficult campaign, said Wednesday, "I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package."

"The rollout has not been good," said one Democratic congressional campaign aide, who noted there was little coordination between the White House and congressional leaders on the proposals.

Many Democrats did, however, like the President's new, combative tone, which they say is putting Republicans on the defensive. The goal, they say, is to turn the November midterms from a referendum on Democratic control in Washington to a choice between Democratic and Republican policies.

In his speech, the president singled out John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) the House minority leader, eight times by name, characterizing him as the face of a party that wants to bring back the economic policies of the George W. Bush era.

"My attitude is, you should be tough on anyone who always says 'no,'" said Mr. Fisher, the Democrat senatorial hopeful from Ohio, referring to Republicans who have opposed the president's policies.

Chris Coons, the Democrat running for Senate in Delaware, said the president's economic-policy rollout was "a critical way to reinforce that Democrats really are going to fight for these economic battles."

Republicans joined the fray, accusing the president of lying about their positions and refusing their offers to cooperate.

Rep. Boehner, the Republican House leader cited by the president, fired back with an economic proposal that he said should get bipartisan support: extend all of the tax cuts passed under George W. Bush for two years, and cut spending on programs not tied to national security to 2008 levels.

"If we're able to do this together, I think we'll show the American people that we understand what's going on in the country, and we'll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America," Mr. Boehner said on ABC's Good Morning America.

It was no coincidence that the president spoke Wednesday outside Cleveland. Mr. Boehner had given his own economic address there last month, and Ohio's governorship, Senate seat and a slew of House seats are in play, with Democratic candidates struggling. Ohio's unemployment rate in July, 10.3%, was above the national average of 9.6% in August.

Ohio remains a critical swing state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 by almost five percentage points. Now it appears to be swinging back to the GOP, and Mr. Obama will have to regain momentum there to support his own chances at re-election to a second term as president.

Mr. Obama's speech signaled a return to campaign mode, drawing on campaign themes that propelled his 2008 surge—his grandfather's service in World War II, his father-in-law's struggle to work despite serious illness and his own work as a community organizer "in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant on the South Side of Chicago."

Giving his party a sharp target, the president castigated Mr. Boehner for proposing "the same [economic] philosophy that led to this mess in the first place."

He hit Republicans hard for opposing the administration's economic plan.

"Instead of setting our sights higher, they're asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness and a shrinking middle class," Mr. Obama said.

For their part, Republicans sought to emphasize, not dodge, their opposition to what they see as the failed policies of the Democrats.

Asked why Republicans are pulling ahead of Democrats in current campaigns, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential rival to Mr. Obama in 2012, said Republicans "in a very unified fashion have opposed bad policy. And the public appreciates it when a party fights against what it knows is bad policy."

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