The complex and fraught politics of wealth and class, undercurrents all along in the race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, are surfacing in increasingly visible ways in the campaign, presenting big risks and opportunities to both sides.
The contrasting images of last week could hardly have been more evocative.
There was Obama on Thursday at a carefully scouted location, the Kozy Corners diner in Oak Harbor, Ohio, downing a burger and fries and chatting with a group of working-class voters about pinochle and trips to Disney World. The next day, he reminisced about a Greyhound-and-train trip he took around the country with his grandmother when he was 11.
And there was Mitt Romney on Thursday, roaring across Lake Winnipesaukee on a powerboat large enough to hold two dozen members of his family who had gathered for a weeklong vacation at his estate-size compound in New Hampshire. Today, Romney will raise money among wealthy Republicans in the Hamptons, with his final stop a $75,000-per-couple dinner at the home of David Koch, the billionaire industrialist, who with his brother Charles has been among the leading financial patrons of the conservative movement.
It was a vivid manifestation of calculations made by both camps. Obama and his allies are testing the proposition that they can avoid tripping over the line into a full-tilt attack on the wealthy and still make an aggressive case that Romney’s success came at the expense of American workers and that the GOP is doing the bidding of its wealthy benefactors.
Romney’s bet is that with the economy failing to gain steam and Americans deeply concerned that the nation is on the wrong track, voters will not really care if he jets across a lake on a water scooter during his vacation and once had a Swiss bank account — as long as he can credibly promise to spur job creation and economic growth. Implicit and explicit efforts by the president and his inner circle to advance the argument that Romney is a rapacious capitalist, in the Romney team’s view, will be seen by voters as a transparent and hypocritical attempt by a group of Democrats, millionaires themselves, to divert attention from Obama’s failure to preside over more job creation.
“I don’t think what they’re talking about is relevant to people’s lives,” said Stuart Stevens, the chief strategist for Romney’s campaign. “This race is about the economy and Barack Obama’s responsibility for the economy.”
Values voters
Presidential campaigns are never just about policies or even personalities. They tend to turn as much as anything on values, and the values in this case go to central questions about the psyche of the U.S. electorate in 2012.
In an era of populist backlashes against the “1 percent” and increased concern about the economic and social ramifications of income inequality, will the long-held assumption that the United States is an aspirational society that admires rather than resents success hold true? At a time when individual billionaires and moneyed interests can play an outsize and often-shadowy role in shaping politics and policy, do political leaders have less incentive to put the needs of the poor and the middle class ahead of the agendas of their benefactors?
Those questions provide a particular opportunity for Obama, who is eager to raise the stakes in the election and make it something more than a march through four more months of unemployment and job creation reports.
Without explicitly invoking Romney’s wealth as a reason to oppose him, Democrats have sought to portray him as the embodiment of a kind of capitalism that works only for the megarich.
Polling suggests that the Bain Capital-based attacks on Romney are resonating with voters in swing states. But wealth, class and politics are a combustible mix that can blow up in unpredictable ways, and Obama is not without his vulnerabilities on that score.
Like Romney, he has spent a good part of the campaign prospecting for donations among the 1 percent, rubbing shoulders with George Clooney and exhorting his wealthiest backers to give more.
Although he canceled plans to spend time on Martha’s Vineyard this summer and is emphasizing his real-guy side on the campaign trail, he has had troubles connecting with the white working-class voters likely to decide the election.
The question of how hard to press the wealth-and-class argument has created splits within the Democratic Party; Newark Mayor Cory Booker said the Bain attacks were as “nauseating” as attacks on Obama for his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Romney even invoked the aspiration defense when asked about his vacation Friday. “I hope that more Americans are able to take vacations,” he told reporters after criticizing Obama’s record on job creation. “And if I’m president of the United States, I’m going to work very hard to make sure we have good jobs for all Americans who want good jobs.”
But Romney faces the challenge of appealing to the middle class as head of a party that is increasingly reliant on wealthy interests that are powering super PACs and other outside groups advertising heavily on behalf of Republicans.
For the most part, Romney has tried to refocus attention on the economy and avoid tussles that detract from his central message that Obama has failed. Some Republicans say his strategy amounts to a low-risk, run-out-the-clock approach that could, in fact, give Democrats more room to define him on their terms.
The contrasting images of last week could hardly have been more evocative.
There was Obama on Thursday at a carefully scouted location, the Kozy Corners diner in Oak Harbor, Ohio, downing a burger and fries and chatting with a group of working-class voters about pinochle and trips to Disney World. The next day, he reminisced about a Greyhound-and-train trip he took around the country with his grandmother when he was 11.
And there was Mitt Romney on Thursday, roaring across Lake Winnipesaukee on a powerboat large enough to hold two dozen members of his family who had gathered for a weeklong vacation at his estate-size compound in New Hampshire. Today, Romney will raise money among wealthy Republicans in the Hamptons, with his final stop a $75,000-per-couple dinner at the home of David Koch, the billionaire industrialist, who with his brother Charles has been among the leading financial patrons of the conservative movement.
It was a vivid manifestation of calculations made by both camps. Obama and his allies are testing the proposition that they can avoid tripping over the line into a full-tilt attack on the wealthy and still make an aggressive case that Romney’s success came at the expense of American workers and that the GOP is doing the bidding of its wealthy benefactors.
Romney’s bet is that with the economy failing to gain steam and Americans deeply concerned that the nation is on the wrong track, voters will not really care if he jets across a lake on a water scooter during his vacation and once had a Swiss bank account — as long as he can credibly promise to spur job creation and economic growth. Implicit and explicit efforts by the president and his inner circle to advance the argument that Romney is a rapacious capitalist, in the Romney team’s view, will be seen by voters as a transparent and hypocritical attempt by a group of Democrats, millionaires themselves, to divert attention from Obama’s failure to preside over more job creation.
“I don’t think what they’re talking about is relevant to people’s lives,” said Stuart Stevens, the chief strategist for Romney’s campaign. “This race is about the economy and Barack Obama’s responsibility for the economy.”
Values voters
Presidential campaigns are never just about policies or even personalities. They tend to turn as much as anything on values, and the values in this case go to central questions about the psyche of the U.S. electorate in 2012.
In an era of populist backlashes against the “1 percent” and increased concern about the economic and social ramifications of income inequality, will the long-held assumption that the United States is an aspirational society that admires rather than resents success hold true? At a time when individual billionaires and moneyed interests can play an outsize and often-shadowy role in shaping politics and policy, do political leaders have less incentive to put the needs of the poor and the middle class ahead of the agendas of their benefactors?
Those questions provide a particular opportunity for Obama, who is eager to raise the stakes in the election and make it something more than a march through four more months of unemployment and job creation reports.
Without explicitly invoking Romney’s wealth as a reason to oppose him, Democrats have sought to portray him as the embodiment of a kind of capitalism that works only for the megarich.
Polling suggests that the Bain Capital-based attacks on Romney are resonating with voters in swing states. But wealth, class and politics are a combustible mix that can blow up in unpredictable ways, and Obama is not without his vulnerabilities on that score.
Like Romney, he has spent a good part of the campaign prospecting for donations among the 1 percent, rubbing shoulders with George Clooney and exhorting his wealthiest backers to give more.
Although he canceled plans to spend time on Martha’s Vineyard this summer and is emphasizing his real-guy side on the campaign trail, he has had troubles connecting with the white working-class voters likely to decide the election.
The question of how hard to press the wealth-and-class argument has created splits within the Democratic Party; Newark Mayor Cory Booker said the Bain attacks were as “nauseating” as attacks on Obama for his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Romney even invoked the aspiration defense when asked about his vacation Friday. “I hope that more Americans are able to take vacations,” he told reporters after criticizing Obama’s record on job creation. “And if I’m president of the United States, I’m going to work very hard to make sure we have good jobs for all Americans who want good jobs.”
But Romney faces the challenge of appealing to the middle class as head of a party that is increasingly reliant on wealthy interests that are powering super PACs and other outside groups advertising heavily on behalf of Republicans.
For the most part, Romney has tried to refocus attention on the economy and avoid tussles that detract from his central message that Obama has failed. Some Republicans say his strategy amounts to a low-risk, run-out-the-clock approach that could, in fact, give Democrats more room to define him on their terms.