Because it worked so well for them in the mid term elections, Obama has decided to revisit all the same talking points he was pushing two years ago. The only thing better, from my perspective, would be if he won and tried to force any of these policies down the nation’s throat.
Washington (CNN) — Think of President Barack Obama’s pivot from last week’s anemic job growth numbers to Monday’s populist call to lower taxes for the middle class as the political equivalent of shifting an awkward dinner party conversation to a rousing comment about the home team’s last game.
The president spoke from the East Room on Monday surrounded by a group of middle-class families standing in rapt attention as Obama spoke of “rebuilding an economy where work pays off.”
Later in the day, the president was to echo his call to extend the Bush-era cuts to those making less than $250,000 a year during interviews with local and regional television stations and at a pair of campaign events.
“Right now our top priority has to be giving middle-class families … security they deserve,” Obama said Monday to applause.
It was a decidedly more upbeat tone than on Friday, when the president was hammered over a relatively stagnant job growth rate and an unemployment rate of 8.2%.
“Obama is saying consciously, ‘I’m going to change the direction of what I’m talking about. Really, here is my strongest argument — I want people to hear that,'” said Robert Lehrman, who was a speechwriter for dozens of Democratic political figures including Vice President Al Gore and is author of “The Political Speechwriter’s Companion.”
Obama has hit the message reset button before during this campaign cycle.
Attention was diverted from a month of dismal economic news in June when he announced a temporary halt to deportation of certain young undocumented immigrants. The move knocked GOP strategists back on their heels and they scrambled to respond.
But it’s a tactic with mixed results.
Republicans immediately pounced on the president’s call on Congress to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 a year, describing it as “desperate.” Congressional Republicans pointed out that the president’s call for the tax cuts extension is not new and accused the president of trying to steer the narrative away from last week’s dismal jobs news.
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