Yesterday, I wrote about how the Obamacrats were beginning to look desperate. Specifically, I pointed to the charge from a Democratic Congressman that the Republican position in the current debate over the debt ceiling was motivated by racism against a black president. Today, there is more evidence of desperation. Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland is charging that the Republicans are intentionally trying to sink the US economy in order to win against Obama in 2012. The charge is crazy and, if it came from another source, I would just ignore it. O'Malley, however, is both a governor and the head of the Democratic Governors' Association. So let's look at the charge.
First of all, what O'Malley really is worried about is that the economy is so bad that it may well sink Obama's re-election campaign, an event that would likely take down with it a number of other Democratic office holders. The GOP already holds the majority of governors and state legislative bodies. A decline there for the Democrats would be truly a big problem for that party.
Second, O'Malley realizes that, as they say, "Obama owns the economy." In the beginning of his term, Obama was the president whose slogan was "It wasn't me! I didn't do it." Obama spent years blaming Bush for everything that went wrong. Now, however, after almost three years in office, the condition of the economy is all Obama's. Very few voters are going to say to themselves that things were bad when Obama took office, so they will give him a pass for not making things better. Most Americans recognize the hand Obama was dealt, but they judge him on how well he played the cards he got. On that score, he is doing very poorly. Most polls find that under 40% of Americans give Obama a passing grade for his handling of the economy.
Third, even aside from the perceptions of voters, there are the actual facts. Obama's big economic moves like the Stimulus, the oil drilling moratorium, the Dodd-Frank Law, the push to strengthen unions, the attempts to raise taxes, the constant stream of new regulations, the failure to do anything to help restart the housing industry and many more have led to the current condition of the economy. The poor results achieved by Obama are clearly bad enough that he is losing to a generic Republican by 8 points in the latest polls.
Fourth, there is little that Obama can do to change the economic trajectory by November of 2012. The usual Democrat playbook of massive spending and massive deficits is already in place, and it has had no real positive effect. There is no way that the country would or could stand for an increase in spending; even Obama says he is against that. The next standard prescription for helping increase economic activity is a tax cut. Obama is not going to go for that option; instead, he is pushing for tax increases which will have the effect of slowing economic growth. (One would assume that O'Malley knows that, but hey, you never know.) The Federal Reserve has already lossened monetary policy to the greatest possible extent. It has even just printed extra cash and pumped it into the economy. In short, if the economy turns around by November of 2012, it will have to do so on its own, and the portents are not looking good for Obama.
Fifth, the Obamacrats need to find a way to avoid the blame for the terrible economic conditions. Yesterday it was to blame racism. Today, O'Malley is blaming evil political calculations. O'Malley wants Americans to believe that the GOP is so venal that it would undermine the US economy just to win office in 2012.
The real truth is that O'Malley's ploy is a loser. Sure, there a millions of folks out there in the country who will believe that the Republicans would intentionally undermine the economy for their own political gain. The key, however, is that all of those voters were already going to vote for Obama. Anyone who is prepared to believe that a party would intentionally damage the country in order to get an advantage, has to think very poorly of that party to begin with. These are not folks who would ever vote for the GOP. On the other hand, there are also millions of swing voters who will be turned off by this new attack. Instead of looking mature and sensible, O'Malley makes the Dems look like a bunch of conspiracy theorists. That is not the image that the Dems should want to cultivate.
We have now seen the one-two punch of the racist and conspiracy rants from Democrats who should know better. If they keep it up, they will just drive large numbers of independents away from the Obama ticket. The truth is that the Obamacrats are showing their desperation about the economy.
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