Obama to America: (Romney has) got nothing

By Greg Sargent

1) The central idea in the speech — that Washington is in a “stalemate” about how to move forward that only the American people can break — was the answer to a clear strategic dilemma. Obama needs to figure out how to highlight GOP obstructionism of his policies in a way that will matter to the American people. The risk has always been that swing voters won’t care why Obama can’t get jobs policies passed, and will simply conclude that he’s been too weak and ineffective to fix the economy, even if they agree with his basic values and priorities, leading them to pick someone who can just get something done already.

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2) Obama framed that choice as one between GOP adherence to free market fundamentalism and anti-tax absolution on one side, and concerted government action to rebuild the middle class on the other. Crucially, he said the main obstacle to progress on the deficit and on jobs legislation is GOP opposition to raising taxes on the wealthy. “It’s the biggest source of gridlock in Washington today — and the only thing that can break the stalemate is you.”

Obama cast GOP deficit-hawkery as fraudulent, pointing out that Republicans only care about the deficit when they’re out of power, and repeatedly noted that the GOP solution is that the “market will solve our problems all on its own.” In sum, Obama is hoping that swing voters will ultimately decide that he’s the one with their true interests at heart and a sense of the future they can identify with. Obama didn’t cite any ideas he hasn’t proposed before, but the entire message of the speech was that if the American people make their choice clear this time, his plans for investment in job creation, the nation’s infrastructure, education and our clean energy future can finally move forward. It’s a big gamble: That even if swing voters say they’re sour on some of his policies, ultimately they’ll have faith in his overall vision and will determine that the other side’s ideas have already failed us.

3) Obama made the most explicit case yet that Mitt Romney doesn’t have a plan to fix the crisis. The president cited independent economists who have said that Romney’s plans could make things worse, hoping to elevate a topic media figures seem largely unwilling to discuss — the question of whose ideas would actually fix the economy.

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