Greg Sargent translates the president's latest challenge:
Can we all stop pretending that eliminating the EPA constitutes a jobs plan?
Steve Benen adds:
The simple fact of the matter is, congressional Republicans don’t have a jobs plan. They don’t even pretend to. By all indications, nearly every aspect of the GOP approach to governance is predicated on the idea, at least in the short-term, of making unemployment worse.
Amid comparisons to Truman's 1948 campaign, Brendan Nyhan issues an important caveat: "Truman’s comeback was fueled by 'sizzling' growth in the year before the election." Nyhan doubts the current economy will rebound as dramatically. David Corn worries about a prolonged message war between Obama and the Republicans:
The real question is, can he sustain such a fight—the equivalent of a political ground war—for the next 13 months? It may be his only play, but it certainly will be hard for him to keep it fresh.
Benen is intrigued by a possible new strategy for "round two" of the jobs fight:
[I]f Republicans kill the legislation, Dems will then press GOP members to start also killing its component parts, one at a time. It’s one thing to reject a package deal; it’s more striking to force Republicans to vote against popular ideas, over and over again — no to infrastructure investments, no to small business tax cuts, no to saving teachers’ jobs, no to the jobs-for-veterans tax break, etc.
According to the NYT, some Republicans understand the political vulnerability of proposing nothing, not even rate-reducing, revenue-increasing tax reform, while a double-dip recession looms. Sure, $447 billion is a band-aid. Structural tax reform, entitlement cuts, Medicare cost control, and revenue increases are necessary to spur long-term growth .. but now? Recessions build on themselves, as demand circles the drain.
I note too how ill-suited Romney is to this climate. Obama's core weakness in a time of rage and populism is his calm and cool. But Romney is not exactly a tub-thumper either; and it's close to impossible to imagine him seeming like the man to redress inequality of sacrifice in this period of austerity. Meanwhile, Obama is slowly turning into a happier warrior, campaigning rather than governing, because, without the GOP, there is very little else he can do. Could Obama reinvent himself as a populist while Romney comes off as a corporate suit? Stranger twists in politics have happened.
Politically, Obama was once lethal as an insurgent. What if he becomes an insurgent again?
(Photo: President Barack Obama speaks in favor of his $447 billion jobs plan while addressing Coloradans in front of Abraham Lincoln High School on September 27, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver three years ago, and Colorado is again considered a key swing state for in the 2012 election. By John Moore/Getty Images.)
The Dish 