Recent poll numbers have confirmed what this space has felt all along to be the case – Barack Obama's re-election chances are tied directly to the state of the U.S. economy, which right now appears to be backtracking from the modest gains of earlier this year.
Our thoughts are that the problems with the economy are so major that a change in leadership right now wouldn't affect the dark fundamentals – but Republican candidates certainly don't believe that, or else why even run to take Obama's place?
On Tuesday in Chicago, Tim Pawlenty laid out his plan that would provide yes, more tax cuts- and he boldly proclaimed that his place would produce average growth of 5 percent over 10 years – which led to carping by some critics – Republican critics who aren't affiliated with any of the other candidates running for office.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.