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Obama touts his conservative principles

Here is the chart that is being displayed by Obama and some liberals as a good thing:


So you responded to a recession in which there was a lack of demand by not spending more than what we were spending when you got into office. And that's supposed to be a good thing? I think what this is trying to do is say to Republicans and moderates, "Look, you're wrong about me being a typical tax and spend liberal". I hope they don't actually think this is a good thing. I hope they realize they should have spent more.

But since I can't get in their heads I'll just criticize the strategy behind presenting this as a good thing. You aren't going to convince conservatives that you are a decent politician by showing them this. They don't care. And you aren't going to convince enough moderates to vote for you using this information. First of all, they don't pay attention to politics. So they probably won't ever see this chart. Second of all, there probably aren't enough of them that could be convinced that this would make the effort matter.

What you should be doing is using this chart to tell liberals that you need their support because we haven't done enough to help the economy and if Republicans get elected, they will do even worse than what this chart shows. You know they won't increase revenue. They may decrease spending. But given their track record I would be high skeptical. And they will do so in worse stimulative ways than Obama has. And thus they will increase the deficit. That should be the message. Not that this somehow shows you are the responsible one. Really, it shows you weren't effective enough in stimulating the economy. You should explain why that's a failure on the part of conservative principles, not as an endorsement of those principles.

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