Morning Joe 5/16/2012 -- How does Obama change the perception?

Morning Joe was very revealing today. On the show were Donnie Deutsche, Mike Barnicle, Steve Schmidt, Paul Ryan and others who discussed the national debt, the two visions that separate Romney and Obama, economic stagnation and compromise in congress. This morning was different because the they had more guests from the Right who believe we have to cut spending and generate economic growth. One guest was from the private sector and he advises businesses on how to survive and thrive -- he said we need to depend less on government and work together more in the private sector to make things happen. Yes!

The Leftist view, though, was still presented, and one of the questions was whether Obama can do anything to help deal with the debt problem. Paul Ryan said that if we enter a debt crisis, it will be too late and no one can be helped. This has been my position all along. If we don't get government under control, welfare and social justice are moot points. In the future, we are going to need private sector solutions to social problems rather than Leviathan.

Scarborough asked one of his guests what Obama has to do to change the perception that he's a Spend and Tax Liberal. First off, this is the problem with programs like Morning Joe and with the pundits who populate the shows. They still believe in the old strategy of managing perceptions to win elections, then when elected returning to the agenda that's the real priority. Obama can't change the perception unless he changes his political philosophy and understanding of economics.

Democrats are in a bind. They think they can position themselves as Centrists who are blocked by radicals from the Right, but Democrats are in power maintenance mode. Unions, minorities, women, young people, the poor, the elderly, environmentalists, the LBGT community, are all dependent on the Democrat Party because they've been promised one thing or another. The problem is that we are going so far into debt, spending on these groups is restricted, But, it's not only spending, it's regulations that favor certain groups. Between the regulations and the spending, however, economic stagnation has developed and money just sits on the sidelines because investors are afraid to take a chance when they don't know what changes will come about tomorrow. Democrats want to take the money sitting on the sidelines, but there's backlash to more taxes, and taxing the producers more just adds to the uncertainty and the stagnation. Producers will operate overseas and keep their money overseas if they are threatened in the US.

Obama attempted early on to create the perception that he was with the Big Corporations, and Obama did help the Jamie Dimon types and the Goldman Sachs executives and GM and Big Unions, but it was a set-up. Now, the real agenda is unfolding, and it is written into the tens of thousands of regulations that are building the healthcare, energy and finance structures. When government controls finance and healthcare and enegry, it controls everything. How does Obama change the perception in order to get re-elected? The question is ludicrous. How does Obama reign over government control of the entire economy, yet fool voters into thinking he supports free markets and less government intervention? He can't. Not in the Information Age. Maybe Obama could have pulled it off when there were three main news outlets and they gave their versions of the news for about an hour a day, but not now.

I will write another post about the current pleas for compromise in DC. We don't need compromise that expands government power -- we need political unity that works to limit government power.