Why Economic Populism is a Winning Strategy for Obama (Ari Berman | The Nation)

[struggle4progress]

Ari Berman on April 11, 2012 - 12:23 PM ET

The centrist Democratic group Third Way has a new report out about “Swing Independents,” who they claim are the Soccer Moms/Reagan Democrats/Rockefeller Republicans of 2012. (I prefer to think of them as the fickle souls who can’t make up their minds.)

These Swing Independents, according to Third Way, make up 15 percent of the electorate and currently favor Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by 44 percent to 38 percent. But despite their soft pro-Obama leanings, Third Way argues that Obama’s populist message of economic fairness is turning these voters off. Swing Independents care about “opportunity,” not fairness, prioritize cutting the deficit over reducing income inequality, don’t believe the US economy is skewed to favor the wealthy and “consider themselves to be haves, not part of the have nots,” according to the report. In other words, Obama should cozy up to the banks (as if he hadn’t already), stop campaigning on the Buffet rule and make the Bowles-Simpson debt plan the centerpiece of his presidency. (The presidency already tried that strategy for much of 2011 and it didn’t work.)

It’s hard to know who is more out of touch—Third Way or the “Swing Independents” they claim to speak for. At the very moment that prominent Republicans are admitting that Obama’s focus on income inequality has put the GOP on the defensive, Third Way wants the president and Democratic candidates to drop the issue. That would be political suicide, not to mention terrible public policy.

This week a new ABC News/Washington Post poll asked voters: “what do you think is the bigger problem in this country—unfairness in the economic system that favors the wealthy, or over-regulation of the free market that interferes with growth and prosperity?” Fifty-two percent answered “unfairness,” while only “37 percent” mentioned “over-regulation.” A December 2011 Pew poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe the US economic system “favors the wealthy,” with 36 percent saying it was “generally fair.” In a November 2011 ABC News/Washington Post poll, 61 percent of the public said the federal government should “pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans,” with 35 percent saying it should not. So much for the canard that income inequality is an issue the public doesn’t care about ...

http://www.thenation.com/blog/167336/why-economic-populism-winning-strategy-obama

[unc70]

1. Look at latest PPP poll in NC

Dramatic shift by independents towards Dems in two months.

[MatthewStLouis]

2. I cannot believe the sleeping masses are up nights worrying about the deficit...

Please, please, please democrats...the debt and the deficit are republican tools! Focus on FAIRNESS. With fairness, opportunity will come. With fairness, opportunities will open up. Who in their right mind is against fairness?