At a Republican governors meeting this week, GOP partisans were warned to keep the subject away from the middle class in the upcoming presidential election—or President Obama will win.
Meeting this week in Florida, GOP governors and their advisers fret that their party could lose its advantage on the tax-cut issue by appearing too eager to protect the rich. Some also warn Republican candidates not to reflexively dismiss anti-Wall Street sentiment, which might be seeping more deeply into the middle class than they realize.
Publicly, the governors predict Obama will be a one-term president. But few have stuck their necks out by endorsing any of their party’s candidates, even with the Iowa caucus five weeks away.
They have plenty of reasons to be cautious, GOP pollster Frank Luntz said in the panel discussion chaired by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. If next year’s campaign is couched as a battle over the middle class, Luntz said, “Democrats will win.” Republicans should say they’re fighting for “hard-working taxpayers,” said Luntz, who is known for conducting focus groups and advising Republicans on precise words to use and to avoid. He also warned that most Americans support Obama’s bid to raise taxes on the wealthiest households, and he urged Republicans not to get engaged in a debate over “taxing” the rich. Instead, he said, they should talk about the evils of “the government taking money from hard-working Americans,” no matter how much they earn.
Luntz added, “I’m so scared by this anti-Wall Street effort.” He was referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which many GOP candidates have criticized, sometimes in sneering terms. Republicans should defend “free enterprise,” he said, a term that’s preferable to “capitalism.” […]
In an interview, Barbour, who considered a presidential bid of his own, said Obama faces big problems. “He’s very weak by historical standards,” Barbour said, with “low job approvals.”
“Voters’ view of the direction of the country, the results of his policies, the lack of optimism are all terrible indicators,” he said.
Barbour added, however, that Obama will have “a gigantic amount of money, and no primary opposition.” Barbour, who endorsed a candidate in the 2000 Republican primary but not in 2008, is staying out of this year’s contest.
