MSNBC’s Chris Matthews argued that President Obama faces a very difficult campaign against Mitt Romney because of the ongoing weakness of the economy and Romney’s campaign organization.
Matthews suggested the economy has not recovered in a significant way. “It is not ‘steaming ahead,’ unfortunately,” he said last night. He was perhaps disputing the gist of Obama’s oft-repeated statistic about 23 straight months of economic growth. “The growth rate is well below 3 percent and that is not strong enough to bring people back to work in the numbers that will instill confidence that the country itself is headed back to business,” Matthews argued.
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The former Jimmy Carter speech writer noted that rising gas prices will “drain” the economy, and observed that “we have a housing problem that remains an albatross–a difficult-to-explain, but devastating, situation that somehow seems to undercut a true recovery.”
Matthews expects Romney to force “a very close, hot, race for the American presidency. “[Romney] has the contacts, the reputation with other business people, and the basic competence to assemble and ramrod an organization that has been powerful enough and disciplined enough to destroy all the candidates who have gotten in his way,” he said. Matthews acknowledged that Obama poses a different, greater challenge than other Republican rivals so far, but indicated that Romney’s strengths still allow him to pose a threat to Obama’s reelection.
