“The left would love for the Tea Party to get distracted, start talking about immigration, abortion, gay marriage, all this other stuff, because right now the chief vulnerability faced by Obama and the Democrats is the economy. Jobs, stimulus spending, federal regulations, those are the three things that are killing this country. Those are the three things that every Republican needs to focus on.”
How prophetic he was.
Two weeks earlier, America’s Jobs Governor had announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He immediately shot to the top of the polls, mostly on the basis of his jobs record in Texas. Since the beginning of 2008, Texas has outperformed the United States in just about every major category of employment[1]. Since President Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, the percentage of unemployed Americans has hovered around 9%. The left knew that as long as voters were focused on Governor Perry’s jobs record, Barack Obama would stand ZERO chance of being re-elected.
So, one by one, the distractions came out. Texas’ in-state-tuition law was labeled a state version of “The DREAM Act”. Gardasil then took center stage, even if only long enough for Michelle Bachmann to make herself irrelevant by it. Then came more immigration talk. Then debates became the focus. Then Herman Cain’s women. Then Newt’s past infidelities. Somewhere in there came a discussion about the size and scope of the Federal Government. Lately, it has been social issues and faith.
Don’t get me wrong. Just because I describe these issues as distractions doesn’t mean they aren’t important – they are – it is just that none of these issues will beat Barack Obama.
Regrettably, many of the candidates and voters have taken the bait. There are currently two governors on the ballot whose jobs record alone would trounce Barack Obama, but these two governors are near the bottom of the polling. How can this be?
Some blame lies on the candidates themselves. Jon Huntsman has been making too many bad jokes and running away from conservatives instead of talking about his jobs record. Rick Perry has been too busy trying to get voters to look at him again after some poor debate performances that he seems to have forgotten what his calling card is – jobs.
And some blame lies with the voters of the GOP. We want so badly to make Obama a one term president that we’ve been searching for the perfect candidate to run against him – one who would be unbeatable in the general election. At the same time, we’re also keenly aware of the myriad problems facing our nation today and we want to see these problems solved immediately. But these two desires on our part have caused us to major on the minors. We spend all of our time talking about the best way to secure the border instead of the best way to get the economy going again. We debate the importance of debates instead of directing attention back to jobs.
Consider: What kind of questions occupy most of the Q&A sessions that our candidates have? Questions about illegal immigration, about individual mandates, about the future of social security, about you name it. What’s missing? Jobs! Now all of the above are connected to jobs in some form – and jobs are the common thread that runs through all of those issues. Yes, each one impacts jobs in one way or another. Therefore if we are going to discuss them, we need to do it in the context of jobs and only in the context of jobs.
Barack Obama’s jobs record is abysmal, even Jimmy Carteresque. If the GOP can make the 2012 election a jobs election, our chances of winning increase exponentially. If the GOP can do this AND actually nominate a candidate with a record of job creation, we WILL win this election.
God Bless America!
[1] What’s interesting is that the author of the referenced article at US News isn’t particularly kind to Gov. Perry or the GOP.
