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| Obama's plan reviewed: what's the point of a glossy campaign brochure? | Obama's plan reviewed: what's the point of a glossy campaign brochure? |
| (30 days later) | |
| With two weeks to go until election day, the Obama campaign sought to mobilise support for a second term with an ancient political device: a policy manifesto. | With two weeks to go until election day, the Obama campaign sought to mobilise support for a second term with an ancient political device: a policy manifesto. |
| While manifestos are still regularly published – and regularly ignored once in office – by European political parties, it's rare that US presidential campaigns use such documents as a means to win votes in the crucial stage of an election campaign. | While manifestos are still regularly published – and regularly ignored once in office – by European political parties, it's rare that US presidential campaigns use such documents as a means to win votes in the crucial stage of an election campaign. |
| In Obama's case, the glossy 20-page booklet – with 3.5m copies to be printed and some 1.5m to be distributed in swing states – seeks to capitalise on the Democratic party's heavy investment in its widespread ground operation, using its network of field offices and thousands of volunteers to deliver the booklet into the hands of undecided or uncommitted voters. | In Obama's case, the glossy 20-page booklet – with 3.5m copies to be printed and some 1.5m to be distributed in swing states – seeks to capitalise on the Democratic party's heavy investment in its widespread ground operation, using its network of field offices and thousands of volunteers to deliver the booklet into the hands of undecided or uncommitted voters. |
| Titled A Plan For Jobs and Middle Class Security, the booklet itself does resemble a European party manifesto, and is unusually dense in its text and layout, despite the series of colour photos of Barack Obama engaged with the subjects of each section. | Titled A Plan For Jobs and Middle Class Security, the booklet itself does resemble a European party manifesto, and is unusually dense in its text and layout, despite the series of colour photos of Barack Obama engaged with the subjects of each section. |
| "It's time for a new economic patriotism," the plan's introduction states, invoking the clumsy phrase adopted by the Obama campaign and plastered on the cover of this booklet. | "It's time for a new economic patriotism," the plan's introduction states, invoking the clumsy phrase adopted by the Obama campaign and plastered on the cover of this booklet. |
| What sets the document apart from the rest of the Obama campaign's 2012 output is that there is just a single direct reference to Mitt Romney and only a few nameless mentions of his policies. For example, in the section on "protecting social security", there is no mention of Romney-Ryan policies. But there is a promise to "stop proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system", a reference to one version of Romney/Ryan proposed reforms. | What sets the document apart from the rest of the Obama campaign's 2012 output is that there is just a single direct reference to Mitt Romney and only a few nameless mentions of his policies. For example, in the section on "protecting social security", there is no mention of Romney-Ryan policies. But there is a promise to "stop proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system", a reference to one version of Romney/Ryan proposed reforms. |
| The document is a clear attempt to rebut criticism that Obama has failed to offer an agenda for a second term. But much of the "plan" is really a restatement of the Obama administration's positions, achievements or policy aspirations. Hence the section on healthcare, titled "putting you in charge of your health care," has a quote from Obama warning of the consequences of scrapping what the plan calls Obamacare, two paragraphs of background, five paragraphs of existing Obamacare benefits, and then ends with a "policy box" summary: | The document is a clear attempt to rebut criticism that Obama has failed to offer an agenda for a second term. But much of the "plan" is really a restatement of the Obama administration's positions, achievements or policy aspirations. Hence the section on healthcare, titled "putting you in charge of your health care," has a quote from Obama warning of the consequences of scrapping what the plan calls Obamacare, two paragraphs of background, five paragraphs of existing Obamacare benefits, and then ends with a "policy box" summary: |
| Obamacare is working to rein in insurance companies and give people more control over their health care. Starting in 2014, the Obamacare Law: | Obamacare is working to rein in insurance companies and give people more control over their health care. Starting in 2014, the Obamacare Law: |
| 1. Ensures that all Americans can purchase health coverage, even if they have a pre-existing condition. | 1. Ensures that all Americans can purchase health coverage, even if they have a pre-existing condition. |
| 2. Creates a marketplace that offers group rates and new tax credits so everyone can afford insurance. | 2. Creates a marketplace that offers group rates and new tax credits so everyone can afford insurance. |
| 3. Prohibits discrimination in premiums so women don't pay up to 50% more for the same policy as men. | 3. Prohibits discrimination in premiums so women don't pay up to 50% more for the same policy as men. |
| 4. Further cuts taxes for small businesses to cover 50% of their premiums. | 4. Further cuts taxes for small businesses to cover 50% of their premiums. |
| There is nothing in those proposals that is new, which explains why today Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod described it as the plan that Obama has been "running on and talking about for months, in written form." | There is nothing in those proposals that is new, which explains why today Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod described it as the plan that Obama has been "running on and talking about for months, in written form." |
| The single mention of Mitt Romney by name comes in the most conventional part of the document: a small panel offering a side by side comparison between "Tax Savings Under Obama" versus "Tax Increase Under Romney," itself using familiar figures of a $3,600 tax cut for a "typical family" under Obama compared with an estimated $2,000 tax increase on "middle class families with kids" under Romney. | The single mention of Mitt Romney by name comes in the most conventional part of the document: a small panel offering a side by side comparison between "Tax Savings Under Obama" versus "Tax Increase Under Romney," itself using familiar figures of a $3,600 tax cut for a "typical family" under Obama compared with an estimated $2,000 tax increase on "middle class families with kids" under Romney. |
| The concentration on Obama, rather than attacking Romney, at such a late stage of the election cycle suggests a nervousness about what George HW Bush once derided as "the vision thing". Meanwhile, the subject headings betray where the Obama campaign feels it needs to more vigorously compete with Romney: the headings "Building an Economy from the Middle Class Out" jostles alongside "A Tax Plan That Cuts the Deficit and Creates Jobs" to produce "Improve Education for Middle-Class Jobs". | The concentration on Obama, rather than attacking Romney, at such a late stage of the election cycle suggests a nervousness about what George HW Bush once derided as "the vision thing". Meanwhile, the subject headings betray where the Obama campaign feels it needs to more vigorously compete with Romney: the headings "Building an Economy from the Middle Class Out" jostles alongside "A Tax Plan That Cuts the Deficit and Creates Jobs" to produce "Improve Education for Middle-Class Jobs". |
| After four years as president Obama does have a record to run on, rather than the vague policies that appear from the Romney campaign. But if there's a big difference it's in the modesty of Obama's plan. While Romney is chock full of impressive boasts – 12m more jobs, tax cuts for all, a bigger military and a lower deficit – the Obama effort is muted. The new plan also does mention 12m new jobs in the next four years – but undercuts that by noting this is what "independent economists" have projected will happen anyway. | After four years as president Obama does have a record to run on, rather than the vague policies that appear from the Romney campaign. But if there's a big difference it's in the modesty of Obama's plan. While Romney is chock full of impressive boasts – 12m more jobs, tax cuts for all, a bigger military and a lower deficit – the Obama effort is muted. The new plan also does mention 12m new jobs in the next four years – but undercuts that by noting this is what "independent economists" have projected will happen anyway. |
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