West Wing Briefing
White House searching for a way to reconnect with voters over economy
Gallery
Documenting their unemployment
Ten residents from around the region kept journals for The Washington Post about how their lives have changed since losing their jobs.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY


PICTURES AT THE SITE



By Michael D. Shear
Wednesday, July 14, 2010; 11:40 AM

Eighteen days into President Obama's term, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs fielded questions about a campaign-style swing Obama was about to make through Indiana and Florida on behalf of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, then pending in Congress.

"Sounds like the good old days, doesn't it?" Gibbs told a roomful of reporters, many -- like the press secretary himself -- still fresh off the 2008 campaign trail.

On that Friday, Gibbs was upbeat, expressing confidence in Obama's ability to make his case for what eventually became an $850 billion stimulus plan.

"I think this is another chance for the president to talk directly to the American people about what he thinks is at stake . . . a plan to save or create millions more jobs and get people back to work," Gibbs said then.

Nearly 17 months later, Gibbs is once again talking about the president's travels around the country to pitch his economic policies. But this time, it probably doesn't feel so much like the good old days.

In a series of polls, the public has expressed deep skepticism about the economic direction Obama began taking in early 2009. A clear majority now say they disapprove of his handling of the issue.

That has put the White House on the defensive as the midterm elections approach this fall. For two straight days, Gibbs has been repeatedly asked versions of the same question: What happened between then and now?

"I think there is, rightly so, a great frustration in this country with where we are economically, and understanding the depths of the numbers of jobs that were lost, the length of this recession, what it has meant for people on Main Street," Gibbs explained to reporters Tuesday.

That sense of frustration among voters has developed despite what White House officials see as a series of successes in the past year and a half: health-care reform, Wall Street reform (perhaps to be passed Thursday) and an economic turnaround that has turned staggering monthly job losses into modest monthly job gains.

Republicans, who are hoping to seize control of Congress, point to unemployment numbers that remain near 10 percent, not the 8 percent that White House officials predicted. And they say the public is fed up with the nation's soaring debt, which the GOP blames on Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

Either way, West Wing officials like Gibbs are trapped now. The more they talk about their economic and legislative successes, the more danger there is that they seem out of touch with the public's sense of frustration.
ad_icon

And yet, without touting the president's victories, they leave their allies in Congress at the mercy of an increasingly sour public mood.




Page 2 of 2 < Back
White House searching for a way to reconnect with voters over economy
Gallery
Documenting their unemployment
Ten residents from around the region kept journals for The Washington Post about how their lives have changed since losing their jobs.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY






On Tuesday, Gibbs sought to walk that line carefully, offering charts that showed the depth of the recession and the progress Obama's administration has made toward recovery -- but also acknowledging how unsatisfying the chart must be to many people.

"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," Gibbs said. "That's quite rational and understandable."

The challenge for the White House and Democrats in the next four months is to find a way to break through that "understandable" negativity and convince voters that they should continue to bet on the president's party.

Back in February 2009, Gibbs said the trips to Elkhart, Ind., and Fort Myers, Fla., were designed so the president could "demonstrate what he's fighting for and why it's so important for the American people."

Asked back then whether "that message [had] not gotten through up until this point," Gibbs said it had.

Now that he's had a chance to enact many of the policies he promised, Obama must make sure the message gets through again. He will know for sure in a few months, when voters cast ballots in the midterm elections.

"Whether it's small-business lending, unemployment or financial reform, all of that . . . will be important accomplishments for the American people and something that you'll hear the president talk a lot about in the next couple of weeks," Gibbs said.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews




Lots of talk in the coming week...you mean lots of lies in the coming weeks.....

Hmmmm how about all of you resigning for incompetence...and take congress, house and senate with you.........


Kathyet