Will people care that Obama gave up talking about jobs because Republicans had the votes to kill any program that might help? I guess we will find out.No, people won't care. (This has been your episode of Easy Answers to Easy Questions!) The reason that Republicans control messaging, as Tim points out in this very post is that they repeat slogans ad nauseum, in every interview to every outlet, and they either mobilize or outright fund people with signs* and questions for every town hall and every presser.
Of course, the framing here presupposes that Obama actually wants to pass a jobs bill. I see no evidence for that; instead we've had all deficits, all the time for a year and a half. I'm not a fan of the health care bill, but Obama didn't pivot away from Republican intransigence to a different topic. He wanted a health care bill, and he got one. (Not a very good one, mind you, but a health care bill none-the-less.) If Obama/the Dems wanted to make jobs a priority, they could be fighting for it. There's no Gang of Six allegedly discussing the problem. Pelosi and Reid aren't talking about the jobs bill they want to pass. Even if they couldn't get something passed, a few months of Democrats pushing for a job bill would go a long way toward that messaging problem. But this isn't a messaging problem.
It's not that Obama is totally helpless in the face of those mean Republicans and can't fix our unemployment problems, even though he really, really wants to. Sure, Obama will be hurt when Republicans start talking about jobs, jobs, why didn't he try to create jobs. He should be hurt, because he didn't try.
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