At a recent event for the DSCC and Chris Coons, President Obama told attendees, “the other side wants you to believe that this election is simply a referendum on the current state of the economy. But make no mistake. This election is a choice… And the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
Well, the President is partially right – the election is a choice. And the stakes are, indeed, high. Unfortunately for him though, the election is a choice about the economy.
In a recent poll from the American Research Group, 51 percent of respondents said that they disapproved of President Obama’s handling of the economy, compared to only 38 percent who approve. The margin for his overall job approval was much slimmer: 48 percent disapproved, while 43 percent approved. Given the poll’s 3 percent margin of error, the American people more or less trust President Obama in general – but not his handling of the economy.
These results were echoed in a new George Washington University/ Politico Battleground poll; respondents felt that Republicans in Congress would do a better job than President Obama on turning the economy around (48-42 GOP/ Obama), creating jobs (50-39 GOP/ Obama), controlling the deficit (50-34 GOP/ Obama), health care (49-42 GOP/ Obama), and Social Security (47-39 GOP/ Obama). When asked about the same set of issues and given a choice between Republican in Congress or Democrats in Congress, the margin isn’t quite as wide, but still favors the GOP on most issues – including turning the economy around (46-45 GOP/ Dem), controlling the deficit (51-37 GOP/ Dem), and Social Security (45-44 GOP/ Dem) – while creating jobs was tied at 45-45, and health care favored Democrats 46-45.
Unfortunately, by asserting that the election is not about the economy, the President has simply reinforced the narrative that the White House is tone-deaf to the concerns of average Americans – which has the potential to hurt the Democratic Party as a whole next week.
