By Wes Pedersen
The creaky lifeboat named Recovery is adrift in the Potomac, devoid of power, crew and passengers.
The administration insists Recovery is somehow going to make landfall in fair shape. The Republicans say it’s a derelict and want to replace it with a raft similar to that which ran aground in 2008.
You don’t have to be an expert to know the fragile Recovery is going to sink unless the politicians put aside their economic differences for the rest of the campaign year and do their best to save it.
That is not going to happen, of course.
Why? Because a failing recovery is perceived as a positive by those running for office.
For those plotting the Obama campaign, it is an opportunity for the president to boast of any discernible bit of economic progress while reminding everyone that the Great Recession was brought on by the ill-advised ventures of George W. Bush and his pillage of the national treasury.
Those at the Republican high command glory in the dismal economic picture and bleak likelihood of a meaningful recovery soon. It is all Obama’s fault, they will have us know.
Stanford’s Edward Lazear, who chaired the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the last four years of Bush’s White House residency, has told readers of the Wall Street Journal that this is the worst recovery in history. He is right. It is, however, a strange, almost unseemly observation by a gentleman who helped guide the country into the vortex of economic disaster.
If action is to be taken, it will, as of this writing, be by the Federal Reserve, whose chairman, Ben Bernanke, is being pressured by investors worried about the market’s nerve-gnawing instability to initiate a third round of stimulatory bond buying. Yes, “quantative easing” again.
It was Bernanke’s reluctance to further juice the economy that prompted the market’s plunge this month.
Against all rationality, Wall Street, once pro Obama, has turned him with what the New Republic’s Alex MacGillis brands a vengeance.
Hedge fund operators have been souring on Obama for some time. Now they can’t shovel money over to Mitt Romney fast enough.
Two new developments provided grist for criticism of, or opposition to, Obama. The revelation that the General Services Administration staffers had whooped it up in Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ tab prompted an immediate denial by the president that his administration did not know how handle the money the citizenry was turning over to Washington.
At the same time, the federal report on unemployment was presented in a fashion that made it appear that greater progress was being made on the problem than was actually the case. With jobs the No. 1 issue for the country, the massage of the number of jobs gained and lost belied the president’s insistence that satisfactory gains in employment were being logged.
Polls show Obama as the people’s choice if the election were held today, though he is faulted for his performance on the economy. His overall rating will of course drop precipitously if the economy weakens dramatically and the rate of actual employment does not improve.
Both sides are looking for economic success stories they can showcase in speeches. Obama has milked the federally-aided field, but some stories are made to order for Romney. He has, however, failed to put enough emphasis on the fact that stories of economic progress are often made possible by businesses that are doing it pretty much on their own.
Against this dreary background, we can only hope that a decision maker will emerge who can spur a turn around soon.
Ben, are you listening?
Ben?
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Wes Pedersen is a retired Foreign Service Officer and principal at Wes Pedersen Communications and Public Relations Washington, D.C.
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