Obama’s Failure To Use His Bully Pulpit On Wall Street Will Cost Him

On my website, www.navigatethezoo.com, I explain how I have worked as a political strategist for several successful elections. President Obama is about to walk into a world of political trouble and the folks working for him should have seen this coming from a mile away. In this article you will learn how Obama’s failure to get in front of the Wall Street practices that have damaged the US economy is now coming back to hurt his ratings. He could have gotten in front of Wall Street, but now they will blame him for the bad economy and he could lose the election as a result.

I often hear people say, “The President doesn’t actually have as much power as people think.” This statement is true in one sense; however, the president has one big ace up his sleeve that makes him very powerful. The bully pulpit of a US President is probably one of the most powerful media tools available. If Obama comes out and says something controversial, it is guaranteed to make headlines. He can draw attention to any issue he wants with merely a few words.

For over a year now, I have been saying that President Obama needed to use his bully pulpit to address Wall Street’s pillaging of the US jobs market. The stock market has climbed for the past two years on data that is actually very negative for middle class Americans. By laying off workers, companies made it appear as if they had larger profits so they could drive up their stock price. Exporting jobs overseas saved companies money and that also drove up stock prices by increasing profits. If you do not believe me, simply look at the data.

Obama’s financial advisors are either paid off or incompetent for not realizing that this would end up slamming the US economy before his first term was over. In the past two weeks, every key piece of economic data has shown our economy is faltering. The US gross domestic product report, (the market value of all goods and services we produce), was much lower than analysts had predicted. The number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits came in much higher than expected. Also, the US housing market officially entered into a double dip.

Today, the number of new private sector jobs created came in at a measly 50,000, which propelled the unemployment rate up to 9.1%. Is this really a surprise? Think about it, the stock market has been rising by laying people off, cutting costs, and shipping jobs over seas. How could anyone have expected this to stimulate the US economy?

Even if he lacks the power to change Wall Street practices, Obama should have been publically calling them out on this for the past year. This would have allowed him to distance himself from all the current negative economic data by saying, “I told the American people that the practices of Wall Street and Corporations would lead to this.” Unfortunately for him, Obama did not get out in front of Wall Street and now they are already starting to blame his actions for the terrible economy. If he comes out now, it will only look like he is trying to pass the buck.

Political Lesson: Always use your bully pulpit to get in front of an issue that you cannot otherwise control. This allows you to appear as if you are still in control of the situation because you can say, “I told you this would happen.” Many political issues are like a gunfight in the old west, you don’t want to be the second guy to draw