Will Romney Catch Up Or Is President Obama Going To Cruise To Victory?
Not so fast…….
Mitt Romney has had a tough week. After walking back comments about who pays taxes which he may have needed to stick to, Romney was hit hard by the media. The video footage of him talking about the 47 percent that is unlikely to vote for him comes after days of press regarding the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Romney released his taxes last week which took some pressure off assumptions that he paid no tax for ten years and the crisis in Libya turned toward his sentiment after new information surfaced.
Romney may not have needed to walk back comments about the 47 percent which are actually true (with no significant social media to buzz), but he did as opposed to using it as an inspirational, futuristic moment. Most people have no idea that incomes are highly skewed which puts families who make $250,000 annually in the same category as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. For a two-income earning family in NYC with two kids, student loans and one child at daycare or private school – making $250,000 hardly qualifies them as being rich. That’s the basic problem with tax uncertainty today which has beleaguered small as well as large businesses in the current recession. Fiscal stimulus advocates like John Maynard Keynes stated in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1935): “It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain - Book 4, Chapter 12, Section 2, p. 148. Keynes is generally not associated with trickle down theory economics and the fact is……businesses just don’t run like that, therefore they haven’t fully invested in the current environment to help turn the economy around.
After the dust settled in Libya, new footage is out showing the U.S. Ambassador being dragged in the streets which hardly makes Romney’s ‘early’ comments unwarranted.
In the upcoming debates, Romney will need to be decidedly aggressive and must control the tone even though President Obama only needs to show up for many in the media to say he won. President Obama’s popularity quotient is high and in the era of social media, this could be enough to win. The debates will give Romney another chance after President Obama enjoyed a bounce from the DNC in Charlotte, North Carolina and a recent week of favorable media. With a new Gallup poll still showing Romney and President Obama still neck and neck at 47 percent after the last few days. Maybe recent events weren’t so bad for Romney considering President Obama’s popularity and will need to be Romney’s trough. Three big issues remain at the forefront – gas prices are twice as high as they were four years ago, unemployment is twice the historical national average and the Middle East/North Africa crisis hasn’t abated. Yes, things have turned the corner but some argue the economy should be cruising now and warned the threat of taxes, uncertainty, possible government shutdowns as well as new healthcare laws would curtail a strong recovery.
August 2009 FLASHBACK: Obama Says You Don’t Raise Taxes In A Recession
Stay tuned on our thoughts about the debates and what both candidates must do!
