I was on O’Reilly this week– Monday night, as usual– talking about the NYT’s, Harvard Magazine’s and entire MSM’s gloom-and-dooming about the American economy, American culture, respect for America abroad, and general bemoaning our “nation in decline.”
Juan and I agree that the nation isn’t “in decline” and that saying so is not a message that will serve either candidate well, though I hasten to remind everyone here that it’s always the Democrat who seems to revel in that message. Back in 2004, Paul Krugman had already been predicting a recession due to Bush’s tax cuts since 2002 and before. When silly predictions didn’t pan out, liberals and Dems took to playing pretend. In 2006, when we had a 5.6 percent growth rate in the first quarter, Nancy Pelosi was on and on and on and on about the horrific state of the Bush economy.
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Now that the growth rate is at long last anemic (after years of unlikely growth in the wake of the Internet bubble burst and 9/11), lefty media outlets and candidates alike are going to be rarin’ to point it out during the election cycle. This works, to a certain extent, as people are facing real economic woes and the party in power will take the blame for that, but the “nation in decline” rhetoric is not a winner with most American voters.
Most American voters are not those whose investment in Bush hatred and the scorched-earth vanquishing of McBush Hitler’s policies and accomplishments is so complete that a downturn for America is an upturn for them. The ill-concealed glee with which Krugman, Pelosi, and other liberal commentators anticipate, announce and exaggerate failures for our nation for political gain is not lost on those voters. Barack Obama is more skilled and charismatic than the likes of Krugman and Pelosi, but he will be relying on a message about a bad economy, and he’d better not overdo it.
Revealing the underlying Hyde-Parkish sentiment that America’s a big dumb puppy whose economic woes are a long overdo bonk on the nose for its rambunctious, destructive capitalism will cost him.
Also, you ever notice how speaking about the real threat of terrorism in political rhetoric is always painted as fear-mongering, but talking about an as yet non-existent recession is never fear-mongering, despite the fact that negative rhetoric and coverage can quantifiably affect the state of the economy? Curious, that.
Enjoy the vid:
