Romney Shifts Focus Away from Economy as it Continues to Grow

by pdxblake

I’m no political analyst, but the more Romney starts using the “Obama is for class warfare” and “Obama is divisive” lines, the worse his election prospects seem.  He seems to be admitting that his strategy to declare victory based on a slow economy (aided by the priority the Republicans placed on hurting Obama politically by making sure as little was done to help the economy as possible) is not working.

And that is a good thing, but it was not inevitable.  Had the economy continued to slow as was feared a month or two ago (or if the European crisis flares up in a serious enough way to hurt the economy in the US) it would have validated an awful strategy that the Republicans employed where continued slowness after a deep recession was a price worth paying to hurt Obama in an election years into the future.

It seems to be failing though, which will probably not stop the GOP from continuing to try it if Obama is re-elected.  They will still have the ammunition to do so by abusing the filibuster and killing anything that they don’t like that gets to the Senate (or shutting it down in the House if they keep their majority).  However, as long as the economy continues to grow (even slowly), it should lose some of its political appeal because it will become harder to slow the economy enough (and Obama won’t be on the ballot again).

However, by turning into a political loser, hopefully it will decrease the temptation in the future for Republican legislators to actively root for a slow economy (and do their best to make it happen).