A Missed Opportunity for Obama

Today President Obama spoke about the economy.  He spoke about the troubles in Europe and their potential impact on the US economy.  He tried to counter the Republican line that his administration's policies have caused many of the problems in Europe.

During this speech, he stated that "the private sector is doing fine."  Within minutes, this comments spread like wildfire throughout the internet and conservative news outlets.  Mitt Romney has called the President "out of touch"and somehow tried to spin this to show that because there is still unemployment, the private sector is NOT doing fine.

Sadly, the President chose to walk back his comments rather than go head to head with Romney on this issue.  From the beginning, this election has been about the health of the economy, which stems from the irresponsible actions of the financiers on Wall Street.  This was a fantastic opportunity for the President to point out that, in fact, the private sector IS doing fine.  Have you seen the profit reports over the past 18 months?  Have you seen the DOW and NASDAQ numbers?  These indicies are higher than they were prior to the crash in 2008, yet unemployment remains high.  So, how is that the fault of Obama's policies? It sounds to me that the blame lays square with corporations, who are sitting on more liquid cash than ever.  Uncertainty is their excuse, but a pathetic excuse it is.

"Time is money" and "You have to spend money to make money" are some of the timeless cliches used in our capitalist system and every day wasted is an lost opportunity.  So you can't tell me that a bunch of successful business folks are just sitting on this money, wasting the chance to make even more money for a few percentage points in interest or their personal wealth (Bush tax cuts).  More investment happened when interest rates were higher and they did just fine, so why is it such an issue now?

The President needs to call out this ridiculous argument for what it is: an excuse for conservatives to say Willard is a better choice.  Indeed, it might be a better choice for the wealthy, but they are trying to manipulate the average Joe and Jane to believe they will somehow be better off under a Willard (Mitt) Romney reign.  Nothing but the opposite could be true and we only need to look at the Bush years to illustrate it.  

The President needs to stand up and be more firm; Democrats need to stop allowing this type of control over the discussion.  It continues to be the theme and continues to make liberals like me believe that the Democratic party is made up of a bunch of spineless goons.