Triangulation Man: The Base

As a wrote before, President Barack Obama's pursuit of Dick Morris' 1996 strategy is resulting in alienating the base. The latest Gallup poll finds that only 85 percent of Democrats would vote for President Obama. You can bet that Republicans will get the tea party mobilized.

Republicans are masters of GOTV. The excitement for Obama is gone. It is unlikely for Obama to get the youth vote turnout he received in 2008. Obama hasn't been using the presidential bully pulpit for job creation. Before you you mention the stimulus. Tas pointed out at how poorly the stimulus was designed.

Hah! Just kidding. Obama's "stimulus" bill spent $26 billion on highway infrastructure projects, while allotting $116 billion for a tax credit. Fat lot of fucking good that did -- Obama added that to get Republicans to vote for the stimulus deal, which none of them did. Corporations awash in investors money still didn't hire, and now investors finally realized that corporations tied to their stock portfolios weren't going to expand, so they fled.

Lesson to corporations: If you don't spend the money when you have it, then you lose it.

Obama's foreign policy successes with Osama bin Laden and Libya are important but not enough to secure re-election. Obama needs to create jobs. Obama needs to start painting Republicans as the enemy of job growth. Republicans have blamed Obama for the economy. The White House message has been the economy is the fault of both parties. While that it true it is also horrible messaging.