Pirate's Cove

Well, there’s nothing truly shocking in that knowledge, I’m sure most of us have been prescient enough to understand that he damned sure can’t run on his economic record, the economy being the #1 issue for Americans. He can’t run on ObamaCare, as it is still vastly unpopular by the majority of Americans. His environmental record? Forget it. Getting tough on illegal immigrant deportations? He was doing well, then put in some squishy “reforms”, which might play to the Statist base, but, won’t play well to middle America, which is generally unhappy with allowing lawbreakers to remain in the country. He can’t run on how well he vacations and plays golf. I mean, he does those two quite well, but, wouldn’t go over well as a campaign platform would it? So, what else is there to run on, except trotting out the tired class warfare meme?

(ABC News) Fighting to win over unhappy American voters, President Barack Obama and his Republican challengers are seizing on one of the most potent issues this election season: the struggling middle class and the widening gap between rich and poor.

Highlighted by the Occupy movement and fanned by record profits on Wall Street at a time of stubborn unemployment, economic inequality is now taking center stage in the 2012 presidential campaign, emphasized by Obama and offering opportunities and risks for him and his GOP opponents as both sides battle for the allegiance of the angst-ridden electorate.

For Obama, who calls boosting middle-class opportunity “the defining issue of our time,” the question is whether he can bring voters along — while parrying GOP accusations of class warfare — even though he’s failed to solve the country’s economic woes during his first term in office.

The difference here is in how the two differentiate solutions to economic inequity. Republicans want to empower the middle class by creating an open atmosphere of less regulation, fewer rules, and less government, which gives the middle class a chance to grow into those evil “rich” people. Obama’s ideas are to regulate and tax job creators to death while promising free everything to middle class people paid for by those evil rich people.

I really despise those Verizon “Susie’s Lemonade” commercials, because using the song “I Want Candy” as the background music to a commercial featuring a pre-teen girl is a Bad Idea. But, let’s consider: in today’s economy, as pushed by Liberal statists, could Suzie actually turn her lemonade stand into a mega-business? First, she’d have to make it past the cops/elected officials/FDA weenines, who would either shut her down or force her to get all sort of business licenses. Then the health inspectors. Then the IRS. The Lemonade Workers Of America union, followed by the National Labor Relations Board. Finally, after jumping through even more hoops not mentioned, Democrats like Obama will complain about Suzy being rich and that she should pay her fair share.

Republicans want to remove most of the road blocks to success inherent in the system. “But, Teach, we should worry about things like health and safety and all the rest.” Sigh. There is a point when common sense, like a quick inspection to make sure the lemonade doesn’t contain Ebola, becomes bureaucratic and political interference, killing the entrepreneurial spirit. When Big Government is entirely too heavily involved for companies to truly succeed. Consider this: the dreaded compact fluorescent lighbulb has been around in some form or fashion since the 1890’s, but didn’t become any sort of real consumer object till the 1980’s. Since it contains mercury, does anyone truly think the design could get into production today where it developed today? They’d be banned from being imported from China.

The GOP does need to be careful in responding to Obama’s line of campaigning, in that they cannot get caught up debating the issue on the surface, and instead move the issue to how damaging Obama’s policies have been for the economy, and how his policies are about taking money from the evil rich and moving it through the government to supposedly end up in the hands of the middle class, which never seems to happen.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.