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Regist.: 11/17/2010 Topics: 296 Posts: 1121
 OFFLINE | President Obama has “pivoted” to the economy so many times that he’s spinning in circles, the Republican National Committee says.
Listing the plentiful press releases and news stories announcing the president’s much-heralded turnabout, the RNC suggests Obama’s economic focus is rather lackadaisical.
In November 2009, the president declared the economy “his overriding focus.” By March 2010, however, the ink on Obamacare had barely dried, and the New York Times’s Jeff Zeleny was wondering, “Whatever happened to that shift from health care to the economy?”
The next month, Obama resolved to “focus on jobs” during a “two-day Midwest trip,” according to Bloomberg.
Alas, the president lost his concentration, because in June 2010, the administration kicked off the “Recovery Summer,” which Politico defined as “a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects.”
By September, however, the president had once again lost focus, and he launched a “Hail-Mary pass to stimulate the economy and create new jobs,” the Miami Herald reported.
After his shellacking in November, Obama yet again vowed, “We now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth” in a December 22 news conference.
Unfortunately, he must have taken a wrong turn, because only a month later NBC News was reporting that “the White House has quickly pivoted to jobs after the president’s State of the Union.”
He was quickly distracted by Libya, Japan, and Egypt. And so in April 2011, USA Today reported, “Though his presidential hours have been crowded by Libya, Japan and other foreign policy challenges, President Obama returns today to what he calls his top priority: jobs.”
But jobs must have taken a back seat, because we haven’t seen much of them lately, and in today’s Politico Playbook, the headline reads, “DEMS PLAN PIVOT TO JOBS.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273500/he-keeps-pivoting-and-pivoting-brian-bolduc#
February 2009: In a speech to Congress, Obama says his economic plan will be focused on jobs.
November 2009, during the lull in health care debate: “This is my administration's overriding focus.”
January 2010: “What they can expect from this administration, and I know what they can expect from you, is that we are going to have a sustained and relentless focus over the next several months on accelerating the pace of job creation, because that's priority number one.”
April 2010: Post health-care, Obama goes on a bunch of “Main Street” tour stops to talk about jobs in April and May.
June 2010: The beginning of recovery summer.
December 2010: “And I think we are past the crisis point in the economy, but we now have to pivot and focus on jobs and growth.”
January 2011: Obama’s State of the Union focuses on jobs and afterward he makes a big jobs push (even though Egypt is taking up his, and the world's attention), launches “Startup America” initiative. |