How Obama uses the levers of power to boost his campaign

President Obama waves as he boards Air Force One before his departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., July 30, 2012.

/ AP Photo

In response to the latest jobs report, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch claimed this morning that President Obama cooked the books to get the unemployment rate below 8 percent. There is no evidence to support Welch's conspiracy theory, which has been debunked by Republicans, Democrats, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and independent observers.

But that doesn't mean there aren't levers a sitting president can use to boost his chances for reelection. And Mr. Obama, like his predecessors, has taken advantage of them.

The two most obvious examples when it comes to Mr. Obama involve immigration and China policy. In June, the federal government announced that it would no longer pursue deportation of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as young children who "do not present a risk to national security or public safety," in the words of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Obama was able to institute the policy using an executive order, which allowed him to circumvent the Congressional Republicans who had blocked the DREAM Act. 

"That closed the enthusiasm gap among Latinos, and that's especially important in battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, Virginia and Florida," said American University professor James Thurber. A CNN poll this week found that a wide majority of Latinos support the decision, and Latinos overall support Mr. Obama over Mitt Romney by a 70 percent to 20 percent margin, according to a new Telemundo/NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll. 

Mr. Obama's team has also used the levers of power to counter Romney's claims that the president is soft on China. After the government discovered a Chinese policy subsidizing auto parts that it says is illegal, Mr. Obama decided to personally announce it was making a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization. It's no coincidence that he made the announcement in Ohio, where one in eight jobs is tied to the auto industry. The Obama campaign even leaked the announcement to Ohio's largest newspaper.

There are plenty of other examples. In June, on the cusp of Romney's trip to Israel, the president signed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which expanded U.S. financial and technological assistance to Israel in defending against missile attacks and provided the country with access to U.S. defense technology. Last month, the United States and other countries undertook a minesweeping operation in the Straight of Hormuz that observers said amounted to a show of force against Iran. 

"The timing was interesting," said Thurber. "It shows the power of the president through his advisers, through the DOD, to have something calculated to send a message to Iran, but that also sends a message to the United States that he's getting tough against Iran and doing it in a quote responsible way, rather than bombing them."

Mr. Obama can use the power of his office to announce funding for things like roads and community colleges that are important to particular areas and constituencies. (One good example: Mr. Obama announced $170 million in drought relief in the hard-hit battleground state of Iowa in August.) The president and cabinet secretaries can also discuss issues important to his campaign during trips to battleground states that are paid for by the taxpayer.

"There are occasions when a president will give a speech that the White House says is an official speech," says CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. "It'll be on a topic that is politically important to the president, like energy, but because he's not saying, 'vote for me,' and because he's not raising any funds for his campaign, the White House is free to call it an official trip. And during the first half of this year, the White House did it all the time."

For every president seeking reelection, of course, there has been blurring of the lines between policy and politics. And it has sometimes gotten them into trouble. Ahead of the 2004 campaign, the Washington Post reported in 2007, Karl Rove, who was then chief strategist to President George W. Bush, told political appointees (in the words of the Post) that "the staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him." The effort prompted a Congressional inquiry.  

[Lucky12345678]

The Federal government is just spending too much, tax revenues keep increasing, but spending is out of control: "... In the US for the full fiscal year, total receipts grew 6.4 percent to $2.45 trillion, while outlays fell 1.6 percent to $3.54 trillion, CBO estimated. Individual income tax receipts rose 3.4 percent while corporate income tax collections rose 33.7 percent. Most categories of spending fell, except for Social Security benefits, which rose 5.9 percent, to $762 billion, and Medicare, which rose 3.2 percent to $469 billion after adjusting for offsetting receipts..." Government spending increases the big divide in this country and creates the class warfare democrats love to talk about. As government transfer spending increases the divide between class's increases, just look at what's been happening for the last three years under President Obama! Big government is not the solution, but the root cause of our problem...

[fiddlestickawshucks]

Obama has been ABusing the levers of power since the first step he took into the White House.!!!

If you believe Oama didn't cook the books on unemployment; I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you.

[JV1970]

It's just as I've been saying. The "unemployment" report came out just too soon after Obama's loss to Romney in the debate. It's very suspicious!

[thegypsykiss]

PRESIDENT Obama - not Mr. Obama. Incredibly rude to call him that after he was elected, and arguably racist.

[MidRoadAlone]

CBS forgot one important one - use the Office of the President to offer to cover legal expenses and back pay for lawsuits from employees and local governments against Defense Contractors to pressure them to break the law and not issue WARN act notifications on Novemebr 2, 2012. This will be million of dollars wasted to help Obama - and will be blocked by Senator McCain in January. How does this help your bottom line Lockheed? - Obama doen't even like you.

[Swift29]

Midroad you fail to even mention this has to do with sequestration which considerably muddys the water. I think the chances are extremely high that come what may, congress will pass something to bypass the cuts so there will likely be no millions paid out anyway.
Not to say there hasn't been conniving and pandering but the strait and Iran has not been done for political posturing. If Brian here kept up with things he'd realize this has been a planned response to Irans' recent rantings. They'd be stupid to try mining the strait but our response is one of the few items I don't think has been done for election posturing, unlike virtually everything else happening.
God help us only one more month.

[nohater]

not a romney or obama fan. but the fact is every past sitting potus running for re-election has used the levers of power to boost their campaign. as for job losses, even during the bush administration there were job losses due to downsizing and many of those were older employees who never found another similar job. grandfather says that even during the takeovers and mergers of the clinton years many lost their jobs never able to recover similar positions. today most manufacturing is done abroad and doubt there are few products that are 100% made in the USA from 100% made in the USA parts, components, etc. only the elite wealthy across the nation have benefited from the global economy and the outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing abroad.

[Swift29]

No there are 100% made in America products but they're from what's referred to as 'light industry'. Not like electronics or autos and such. 'Course there is specialty steel and some other standouts but yea, we got sold out. Mainly so the yuppie generation that cares only about their income, and not about what's left of the country, will "get theirs". Brutal jungle out there and Wall St. is a similar beast. Only governmental regulation can stem the flow and tea baggers and uneducated white blue collar voters don't help the situation. Go Dems!

[concernedND]

I used to have a good job like a lot of other people, but 64 others and myself were laid off, and the reasons we were given were; the economy and they did not know what Obama Care would do to the company. It is ironic that a law that should guarantee my family has health insurance was partially responsible for taking it away. By the way all 65 of us worked for a health insurance provider. i am not a big believer in Obama's ability to promote job growth and his ability to make sure everyone has access to health insurance. I lost my job, health insurance, retirement plan, and 401K.

Here is a good website that spells it all out
www.year-4-change.com

[jahmartin-2009]

If, as you've written, you lost your job you have my sympathy. But I don't think it was Obama's healthcare plan that cost you your job. Many companies, starting in 2007, started laying off employees in droves due to the economic down turn. And many employers, because of their dislike for Obama, have blamed him for having to lay off workers. Truth be told, most employers want to increase their profits and are looking for an excuse to lay some employees off. As far as losing your job in the field of health insurance, ConcernedND, you have to consider that not much of Obamacare has even gone into effect yet and won't until 2014. Why would your employer lay off employees two years early, without even knowing what the effects of Obamacare would be???

[ugacrew]

It's greed. Your co owner cares more about profit than you, plain and simple. Further, if he out-sources, he can get the job done with far less and make far more. The Republicans started that and are continuing to fight for it.

[concernedND]

When talking about the employment report that came out today, it seems a little odd that the unemployment has fallen this much since last month with such little job growth. When figuring unemployment two scales can be used, the one used for this report was the U-3 scale. This scale takes into consideration the peole looking for work and the unemployed, this is where the 7.8% came from.
If you use the U-6 scale it use more metrics which i feel gives you a more accurate picture of the current unemployment rate.
U-6 uses the people unemployed, people looking for work, people working part time but looking for full time work, and ppeople who are unemployed that have given up looking for a job, this gives you 14.7% unemployment.
This falling unemployment seems a little to good to be true since it comes after Obama failed miserably in the debate.
Here is a good website www.year-4-change.com

[JV1970]

I agree! Your statement "This falling unemployment seems a little to good to be true since it comes after Obama failed miserably in the debate" is exactly what I've been saying!

[Jaylah54200]

It was a good thing when both Bushes did it, and when Reagan did it, and when any Republican does it.

But the VERY SAME THING is bad when a Democrat does it.

But the TeaPublicans don't see themselves as hypocritical. ROFL

[Ben37221]

Great job Mr. President. Unemployment is down to 7.8%. Brian, what is your point?
GOP, did you hear the good news, I said unemployment is down to 7.8%-now you republicans can cry your heart out.

[ugacrew]

"You republiclans can cry your heart out," and they will. They will cry foul because they will never give credit when credit is due.

[JV1970]

Obama clearly lost the debate Wednesday night and it is very obvious that he doesn't like to lose. It was said years ago that when Obama first got into politics in Illinois, if he thought he was going to lose, he would start fighting dirty and would eliminate his opponents with dirty tricks and lies.

I think Romney had better gear up and put on his full armor and get ready to defend himself because I think the last few weeks of this election are going to be very nasty! There's no telling what dirty trick Obama's going to pull now!

[JV1970]

I disagree with you! I think Obama will be a one term president because anyone with half a brain isn't believing the so-called "lower" unemployment rate that the Obama campaign announced not even two days after he lost the first debate. I think this is one of those dirty tricks I spoke about. In my opinion their timing is very suspect!

[ugacrew]

Speaking of tricks JV, did Obama carry notes into the debate with him? I thought there were rules of some sort, but if you watch carefully, Mittens pulled notes out of his pockets.