Economy leaves Democrats in bad position
WASHINGTON -- Democrats are entering the fall sprint to the midterm elections lacking a unifying message to address the lackluster economy, scrambling to come up with further job-creating remedies and out of time to show substantial results before voters go to the polls.
The monthly jobs report on Friday, while better than economists had expected, did nothing to improve the deteriorating political climate for Democrats a little more than eight weeks before Election Day.
President Obama, after a week consumed by foreign policy issues, will begin focusing publicly on the economy next week and on Wednesday plans to propose modest additional tax breaks, temporary and aimed at small business to promote hiring. But it is not clear that he has the votes or the time in Congress to pass them, with Republicans eager to deny Democrats any victories and endangered Democrats eager to get home within three to four weeks to campaign.
Democrats' sense of vulnerability has increased since Congress broke for August, after a month of reports tracking weakness in both the economy and their polls. One result is that they now split more deeply than ever on the issue that in recent elections had been a rallying cry: ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers. Democratic leaders are imploring Mr. Obama to come off the sidelines and lead the fight.
On the campaign trail, many Democrats are going their own ways as they face the prospect that persistently high unemployment could cost them control of the House and perhaps the Senate. Many are embracing the stimulus package enacted soon after Mr. Obama took office; others run away from it. Some distance themselves from Mr. Obama and his economic team; most blame Republicans.
Democrats' campaign message mostly is a Babel of individual voices. With the national winds blowing ever stronger against the party in power, threatened Democrats are tailoring their message to their particular district or state -- with party leaders' encouragement.
Representative Tom Perriello, an underdog for re-election in Virginia, campaigned this week in a county where he pointed to new water lines and broadband service as the benefits of the stimulus, which helped attract Microsoft to invest in the tobacco region. But he also has called for Mr. Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, to go.
"If it's Perriello versus Hurt, I'll win," Mr. Perriello said, referring to his Republican challenger, State Senator Robert Hurt. "If it's a referendum on the president, it's a tougher race."
Mr. Perriello could not immediately answer when asked what the national Democratic message is. "I suppose the pause there may be telling," he said.
"But if there is one theme," he added, echoing a metaphor Mr. Obama likes to use, "it's that the other side drove the economy into the ditch and they haven't changed their driving habits at all. And we've worked really hard to get us out of the ditch."
In Arizona, Representative Gabrielle Giffords emphasizes her work for tougher border controls and support for the stimulus money that saved the jobs of local teachers and public-safety workers. Like many Democrats, her campaign depicts her Republican opponent, Jesse Kelly, as an extremist conservative for his views on Medicare, taxes and other issues.
"We're running our own race," said Rodd McLeod, the campaign manager for Ms. Giffords.
Representative Walt Minnick, Democrat of Idaho, boasts at home that he opposed the stimulus package and Mr. Obama's health care overhaul.