James Carville was beyond blunt today, saying “If Hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to Obama, he’d have two.”
James Carville and Stan Greenberg on the failed Obama economic message.
“During the campaign… their message of ‘what we are doing is working,’ people would get mad, okay,” said Carville. “Most kind of messaging is not very effective, it just goes in one ear out the other. This one, it went in one ear and right to the brain. What were they thinking? It was almost universal. And as opposed to saying ‘These irresponsible, greedy people got us into this mess and we are the only thing between you and them, and we are fighting every day and we understand.’ We kept telling them, don’t tell them it’s working… The White House had the best and brightest. But they mis-underestimated this.”
Or they didn’t care. Let’s not forget, Obama was the early favorite of the investment banks and he has never attacked them in any significant way.
“A metaphor about a car in the ditch when people are in trouble and angry at Wall Street is just out of touch with what is going on,” Greenberg said, with respect to the president’s closing argument during 2010 cycle. Pointing to the polling data he had seen in the lead up to the vote, he added: “At one point, any framework tested better than trying to make the case for success.”
Out of touch, and uncaring, seems to me.