Obama to Make Jobs His Top Second Term Priority — Says He

Where have we heard this before?

Washington Post:

President Obama will concentrate his State of the Union speech Tuesday on the economy, shifting the emphasis away from the broad social agenda of his second inaugural address to refocus attention on a set of problems that vexed his first term.

Several senior administration officials involved in the speech say he will use his fourth State of the Union address to talk about jobs after the national unemployment rate ticked up last month. He will propose ways to make college more affordable to more people. And, the officials said, he will argue for the need to spend public money — on research, on roads, on education — to prepare Americans for a world where a warming climate, a nomadic labor force and new technology are shutting doors and opening new ones across the national economy.

“Our single biggest remaining challenge is to get our economy in a place where the middle class is feeling less squeezed, where incomes sustain families,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the address based on drafts, marked up with highlighters, that were circulating among senior staff members late last week.

“This project is not complete, by any means,” the official added.

With Obama’s popularity up in recent polls, he made the back-to-basics approach clear last week in a meeting with House Democrats, whose inconsistent support will need firming up if his full domestic agenda has any hope of succeeding.

The double whammy of an increase in unemployment and a preliminary indication of negative 4th quarter growth may have convinced the president that his other priorities for a second term — immigration reform, gun control, gay marriage — might have to take a back seat for the moment. It’s true that Obama isn’t running for anything anymore, but the rest of his agenda won’t go anywhere if his personal popularity takes a nosedive. All he’s got left as a lame duck is his personal popularity. A tanking economy and a boost in joblessness would lead to his approval going south and short circuit his ambitious plans to transform us.

So what is he going to offer for a solution? Same old, same old. Road building, hiring more teachers, and more green boondoggles seems to be the limit of his imagination. Perhaps the amazing thing is that we have a functioning economy at all, given the ministrations of this president and his crew of clueless gnomes.

How many “pivots” has this president made from the cause du jour to jobs?

In his first State of the Union address in January, 2009, he promised to “jump-start” job creation.

In December, 2009 he promised “an unyielding, unrelenting, day by day effort” to create jobs.

“Jobs must be our Number One focus in 2010” he said at his State of the Union in January.

In March of 2010, he said he “wouldn’t rest” while helping people find jobs.

In September, 2010, he said his focus had to be “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

In July, 2011, when announcing the debt limit deal, he said that the agreement would allow him to “pivot” to jobs.

In August 2011, he said his “singular focus” was on jobs.

In November, 2012 the president made job creation the subject of his weekly address — for the umpteenth time

All of this and more are included in the video below:

Reminds me of the Bullwinkle “Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat,” trick. Not only does Bullwinkle try, and try, and try again. He fails miserably each time.

That’s our president.