WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney; striding into the long battle for the White House – are peddling vastly different stories about the American economy, and the outcome of the November election depends on which of them recession-battered American voters decide to believe.
The economy finally is showing signs of a fragile but sustained recovery, and that is good news for Obama, whose poll numbers are ticking upward and who holds an early polling lead over Romney. But there are 6 1/2 months remaining before the election and untold foreign, domestic and economic challenges yet to reveal themselves.
For now, Obama is faced; barring a sudden economic acceleration, with trying to prove a negative, to convince voters of his argument that things would have been far worse had he not administered a massive stimulus to the economy as he took office three years ago in the midst of a near financial meltdown and raging job losses.
He continues exhorting Americans to not forget that their economic pain was the fault of former President George W. Bush. While polls show most Americans accept that argument, they can't help but remember that they felt the pain of the country's crushing economic downturn; the deepest since the Great Depression, on Obama's watch. He has said he expected he would be a one-term president were he not able to right the economy before the upcoming election.
Then there's the massive increase in the national debt, now above $15 trillion, part of it piled up to pay for the Obama stimulus. Can he convince a nation that has tightened its belt, scouring the household budget for even the smallest non-essential spending, of his vigilance with the federal government's purse strings in a second term?
For his part, Romney is hammering Obama as fiscally inept, directly responsible for the laggardly recovery and solely to blame for the skyrocketing US debt.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and multimillionaire businessman, insists he knows how the economy operates, would have pulled it out of the staggering downturn more quickly and will be an experienced and steady hand, ready to curb deficit spending and rapidly create jobs to bring down unemployment.
Thus, on the key issue of the economy; the one most important to voters as the long campaign stretches toward election day on November 6, both Obama and Romney are left trying to sell unproven and not provable hypotheticals.
Simply put, Obama claims he saved the nation from falling into the economic abyss; Romney says Obama to fault for the country's laggardly recovery and massive debt.
James Broussard, a professor at Lebanon Valley College and a Republican who is chairman of the Pennsylvania special interest group ``Citizens Against Higher Taxes,'' says voter worries about the debt ``will give Romney a powerful second line of attack.''
But he acknowledges the strength of the Obama argument that he was indispensable for the ongoing recovery.
Broussard's advice to Obama: ``He's got to say `Don't judge me on where we are. Judge me on where we came from and remember it was the Republicans who put us there. Do you want to keep the guy that got us out of the catastrophe or a return of the Republicans who put us into it.'''
He said he wouldn't bet one way or the other on the outcome.
``Obama is right, we were going off a cliff when he came in,'' he said. ``Romney is right in saying this has taken too long because of Obama.
It all depends on the specifics, said Mac Clouse, the director of the Reiman School of Finance at the University of Denver.
``If one of them comes up with concrete ideas, that could be a big plus in this election. If we can take things on more than just their word or good faith; that would make sense. They are going to have to come up with some pretty creative ideas,'' he said.
In that regard, polls show a majority of Americans back Obama's push for higher taxes on wealthy Americans, the so-called Buffett rule that Obama has been pushing in recent campaign stops.
The tax increase Obama wants; one that would cut the national debt but not on the massive scale needed, is named for billionaire Warren Buffett. He famously said it was wrong that his tax rate was lower than that paid by his secretary.
source: mb.com.ph
