Cantor’s Secret Plan: Bait Obama Into Taking Ownership Of Economy
When Barack Obama took ownership of the ailing economy the other day by saying, “give it to me,” grabbing the attention of the political world, the President was following a well-thought-out plan.
A plan thought out by House Republicans, that is.
According to a senior House GOP aide, GOP Rep Eric Cantor has deliberately been using the phrase “Obama’s economy” again and again in recent weeks in hopes of realizing a specific political goal: Baiting Obama into to making the economy his own.
Cantor has been steadily using the phrase since at least the beginning of June. He used it most recently on July 11th, during the GOP’s national radio address, saying: “Simply put, this is now President Obama’s economy and the American people are beginning to question whether his policies are working.”
Several days later, Obama said: “I love those folks who helped get us in this mess and now say, ‘This is Obama’s economy,’ That’s fine. Give it to me.”
That was what Cantor’s office was hoping for all along, the GOP leadership aide confirms, adding it was a key first step in making the economy Obama’s number one political Achilles heel. The goal: Keep the discussion focused on the economy — Obama’s economy — and to point out that any time Obama talks about health care and cap and trade he’s neglecting job creation, the top concern of Americans.
Of course, Dems will counter that Obama deserves credit for willingly taking possession of the economy and other domestic crises simultaneously, despite the political risk. They’ll argue that the strategy reveals the extent to which Republicans are evading responsibility for the economy — and are betting on its failure. Game on!
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Update: House Dems rip into the GOP leadership in response.
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I can’t think of anything smarter than Republicans.
Romney-Cantor 2012?
I think Gibbs is the one who first let this slip back on June 29th or so, effectively taking responsibility for the June and after jobs reports.
Chris-
I can… pie
Cantor’s aide is silly. Does anyone even pay attention to Cantor? Every one knows the American people would start to blame Obama for the economic problems that were caused by actions starting at least ten years ago. It is smart of Obama to publicly accept responsibility for something that would credit/blame him for anyway.
@ sbj, but those are Republicans and you don’t vote Republican remember sbj???
Greg,
You’ve got to be joking. They were throwing that language in the hopes that Obama would do what he did, based on what evidence? Seems to me Obama outflanked them, and they’re trying to rewrite history.
Chris — you think this post is a positive for the GOP?
Here is my concern. Some economists are predicting extremely slow job growth. To top that off, if the recession will be indeed ending in the third quarter sometime, this gives Republicans another 3-5 months approximately to jump up and down and point and job losses. This is reliant on the historical trends of job gains lagging behind a turn around in GDP.
The contest will then be between Republicans pointing to the high % unemployment and Democrats pointing to positive job growth.
Whoever yells the loudest wins.
Greg
I think Chris was using snark.
By the way, again just an idea for you Democratic strategists out there, how about tying House Republican leadership to Sarah Palin and calling them all a bunch of quitters. IE once they weren’t in the majority anymore and couldn’t direct the agenda they decided to QUIT and take their ball and go home. They aren’t representing their constituents anymore, they are just voting no on everything because they don’t want take any responsibility for the economy they helped to create. Just like Sarah Palin, when the going got tough, the House Republicsn ran for the hills instead of staying and fighting for what they believe in. Its much easier just to say no to everything than to actually make a your case to the American people.
I swear the powers that be are just letting the Republicans frame every single issue with only luke warm pushback even though they have all this material to work with. Gahhhhhhh its so frustrating.
Mike: It’s worse than that. I’ve read that the public tends to perceive the economy as performing poorly (consumer confidence low) well AFTER a recession has ended – up to two years after the recession ends the general perception may well be that the economy is still not in good shape.
http://www.muhlenkamp.com/methods_index.php
“Game on?” Good piece as always Greg. This is about lives (health care) and the well being of Americans (economy). Do you feel that the politicians (Obama and Cantor) see this as a game? Frankly it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
@ sbj, come on can’t you endorse at least one Libertarian?
@SGW: I’m totally with you on the frustration. It’s a combination of decades of the press allowing Republicans to frame the debate, and how Dems (after all this time of being crapped on by the press) have lost the ability to properly push a talking point.
If Democrats would just stand up to the jackasses in the traditional media pool when they treat Republicans with kid gloves or give creedence to outlandish smears…only then will they be able to get their message out.
Again, the Republicans have nobody that is attractive enough as a leader to sell a campaign. Certainly not Cantor nor Steele can appeal to the public. The only national leader the Republicans really have at this point is Palin, and more than half the country is completely turned off by her. Beyond D.C., it doesn’t matter what Republicans say if they can’t sell it for lack of recognized leadership.
It seems to me that the Republicans have yet to figure out that the American public are much more understanding and forgiving when they perceive someone taking responsibility. I think Obama’s statement, to most of us sick of partisan bs, is like a breath of fresh air, and at the same time , solidly reminds us of who really owns the problems in the economy.
I never thought I would say this but at this point it seems like Republicans just want to play games, and Democrats are actually interested in good governance.
House Dems respond to this story, point out that Bush still owns economy:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/economy/dems-rip-eric-cantor-for-secret-plot-to-make-obama-own-economy/
The reality is that the Republican 2007 Great Recession is something that we’re all going to be stuck with for years to come, especially with Republicans deliberately sabotaging attempts at fixing the economy.
Which part of government do the Republicans control? The House after the 2008 elections had 257 Democrats and 178 Republicans. The Senate had 60 Democrats (and Indepedents who vote as Democrats) and 40 Republicans. The President is a Democrat. When a party has overwhelming control as the Democrats do now, it has to take responsibility for what happens. The Republicans had their chance under Bush when they controlled congress and blew it. The voters held them responsible for the mess they made by electing Democrats. Only partisan hacks would think it unreasonable for the voters to hold the Democrats responsible for the messes they currently are making.