Unquestionably, the most memorable phrase of the 1992 presidential contest was "It's the economy, stupid." The slogan grew out of a three-phrase sign that James Carville hung in Bill Clinton's headquarters to keep campaign workers focused: "1) Change vs. more of the same; 2) The economy, stupid; 3) Don't forget health care."
Perhaps that sign should be posted in the Obama White House, given that health care seems to be the administration's obsession, and the economy can seem like not much more than an afterthought -- even though that's clearly not the reality. And alongside the "stupid" sign, the White House might want to keep the results of a fascinating September 21-23 national survey conducted by Democratic pollster Geoff Garin of Hart Research Associates for the Economic Policy Institute. A whopping 81 percent of the 802 registered voters interviewed said that the Obama administration needs to do more about unemployment and disappearing jobs. Just 13 percent think that the president has done enough.
Likewise, when Garin asked respondents to name the one or two most important economic issues facing the country, "unemployment and the lack of jobs" was way out in front, at 53 percent. "The federal budget deficit" ran second at 27 percent, followed closely by the "cost of health care," 25 percent. Then came "wages not keeping up with the cost of living," 20 percent; "high taxes," 16 percent; "foreclosures and declining home values," 14 percent; and "problems with the banking system," 12 percent.
Voters' frustration really came through when the pollsters asked, "How much has each of the following been helped by the government's economic policies?" Sixty-two percent said that large banks had been helped "a lot" or "a fair amount," followed by a combined 54 percent for Wall Street investment companies, and 21 percent for manufacturers. A paltry 15 percent said that "people who have lost jobs or had hours cut" had been helped a lot or a fair amount, 13 percent said the "average working person," 11 percent said small business, and 10 percent said "my family" or "myself." Simply put, most Americans see Uncle Sam as having taken care of the big boys (and girls) but not the little ones.
To be sure, there are plenty of strong arguments to be made that last fall and early this year government officials, including the president, urgently needed to concentrate on stabilizing our nation's financial system and credit markets. Indeed, President Bush and his economic team and then President Obama and his advisers performed heroically to keep the U.S. and world economies from falling off a cliff and into a second Great Depression. We were mere days -- if not hours -- from plunging into the abyss, most experts agree.
But the American people are in no mood to hand out kudos for the government's performance. The results of Garin's poll suggest that the public wants saving and creating jobs to be at the very top of the government's agenda. Every minute that voters see the president and congressional Democrats wrangling over health care is another minute that voters don't see them focused on the nation's 9.8 percent unemployment rate.
Perhaps another saying that ought to be tacked up in the White House and Democratic caucus rooms is a memorable Clinton line from that same 1992 campaign: "Focus on the economy like a laser beam."
The Democratic officials of today are getting themselves caught in a vise -- between voters with conservative/libertarian leanings on one side and those with liberal/populist views on the other. A Gallup Poll recently found, for example, that 57 percent of Americans say they see government as "trying to do too many things that should be left to businesses and individuals." That's a 10-year high on that frequently asked question. Just 38 percent say that government should "do more to solve our country's problems." That's not a record low, but it's below normal. Other national polling shows that independent voters buy the "government is doing too much" argument over "should do more" by a wide margin -- about 30 percentage points.
But even as most Americans complain that the government is trying to do too much, a great many are telling pollsters that Washington is doing far too little to help average people, especially the unemployed and underemployed, weather hard times. Regardless of whether that criticism is valid, the perception that the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress are missing in action on jobs is a huge problem for their party.
It really is the economy, stupid.