Obama makes economic case in battleground Colorado
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyImages
(CBS News) After a week largely focused on the turmoil in the Middle East and his administration's foreign policy, President Obama on Thursday revived his economic campaign pitch in one of the most critical counties in one of this year's key swing states.
"We don't believe in a top-down, trickle-down economy that says to everybody you're on your own," Mr. Obama said to a crowd of supporters in Golden, Colorado, against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. "We believe the economy grows from the middle class out, from the bottom up."
Golden is part of Jefferson County which, along with Arapahoe County, has become a focal point for the 2012 presidential campaigns. As the Washington Post reports, the two counties account for nearly one quarter of Colorado's electorate and have swung between the parties in recent elections.
In 2008, Mr. Obama won Colorado by nine points, but the state's nine electoral votes are considered a toss-up this year. Today's stop marked the president's 14th stop in Colorado since taking office and his ninth this year, according to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
Mr. Obama noted Thursday that he is the first sitting president to visit Jefferson County since Ulysses S. Grant. "Back then you couldn't even vote -- you guys were still a territory," the president joked with the crowd.
Using a rhetorical device he employed in his speech last week at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Obama ridiculed Republicans for suggesting tax cuts as a solution for everything.
"Tax cuts in good times, tax cuts in bad times, tax cuts when we're in peace, tax cuts when we're at war," the president said. "Tax cuts to lose a few extra pounds...whatever ails you."
He reminded voters that under his leadership, the typical family has seen their income tax burden decrease and that small businesses have seen several tax cuts.
"I've cut taxes -- for folks who need it," Mr. Obama said. He lambasted Republicans for suggesting they can cut the deficit "by spending trillions more on tax breaks for the wealthy."
While the president for the most part focused on the economy, he also addressed the violence in Libya that left four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, dead.
"No act of terror will go unpunished," Mr. Obama said. "It will not dim the light of the values we proudly present to the world."
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What I see is the need to incentivize US investment and make the case for companies to patriate foreign made profits
What I see is a need to reduce the Fed
What I hear from BO is pay more so he can spend more
After reelection, with a Democratic Congress we will pass the jobs bill that will put TWO million more people back to work and add 2 points to GDP growth.
Massachusetts tied with Arkansas for 41st in the Economy category in 2007, and was one of most expensive states in which to do business and to live (ranked 40th in the Cost of Doing Business category; tied for 43rd in Cost of Living one). Its Workforce ranking was in the bottom half at number 26, and its Infrastructure ranked 38th.
As Romney was leaving office in January 2007, the national recession was still nearly a year away, but the Massachusetts economy was already losing steam, and job growth had slowed considerably.
In December 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in Massachusetts stood at 5.3 percent, compared with the national rate of 4.5 percent. The state added about 35,000 jobs in 2006. The state of Washington, with a similar-sized population, added more than 83,000.
The Romney campaign can accurately claim he balanced four budgets as governor, but it is also worth noting that state law in Massachusetts requires a balanced budget.
We will see on election day.
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In Colorado, economy rebounds, but not support for Obama
A growing economy typically bodes well for a president seeking reelection, but despite a Denver-area housing boom and other promising indicators, Colorado voters remain torn between Obama and Romney
September 12, 2012|By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
Throughout Denver and its suburbs, the housing market is booming. Homes are being sold a day after they're listed, prices are climbing, and contractors are scrambling to find the construction help they need. Sales are up 18% from a year ago, and the average listing time is down by about a month, according to Metrolist, which provides housing data to real estate agents. Colorado ended the year with more money than it anticipated because tax receipts are were up.
That should be a good sign for President Obama in this swing state, which he visits Thursday. An improving economy usually benefits an incumbent.
But even in parts of Colorado where the economy is doing very well, voters are expressing disappointment and even disgust with Obama, with his challenger, Mitt Romney, and with Washington as a whole.
Sure, housing is booming, and restaurants and stores are full in Golden, said Knight, an independent voter from Jefferson County, one of two counties adjacent to the energy hub of Denver that is experiencing a real estate turnaround. But the sniping in Congress and on the campaign trail is making him want to give up on the political process altogether.
"If our area is doing well and the rest of the country is not, frankly, that doesn't excite me," said Knight, 54. "The politicians should get together and decide what's best for the country but everything has gotten too political."
His views are not out of the ordinary, and probably contribute to Obama's narrow lead in a state he won by 9 percentage points in 2008, strategists say.
"There's a sense here that the recovery is on," said Floyd Ciruli, founder of a Denver-based polling firm. "But voters, to some extent, don't base their vote on local economic conditions, but rather what direction they feel the country is going in. And people here are anxious and disgusted with Washington."
There are many reasons the economy around Denver is doing so well, said Ron Throupe, a professor at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at the University of Denver. The mining and high-tech industries have brought jobs to town, putting pressure on a real estate market that didn't build much during the downturn. Young adults who moved in with their parents during the slow days of the recession are now moving out and looking for places to live. And there's suddenly a perception that the market has nowhere to go but up, making buyers scramble to lock in the best prices they can.