Four Potential Pitfalls for Obama’s Debt Speech

FoxNews.com

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet

President Obama today will for the first time discuss his strategy for dealing with the nation’s $14.3 debt. It’s part of a painful negotiation with Republicans over the president’s pending request to increase the government’s borrowing limit, now less than $80 billion away.

The president needs at least $900 billion to even reach the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, likely more since deficit spending shot up 16 percent in the first six months of the fiscal year. And in order to get through the 2012 election cycle without making another politically costly request, the president would need more than $2 trillion this time.

Obama ducked the debt and deficit issue in his annual budget proposal and has preferred for Republicans and a bipartisan coalition in the Senate to take the lead on addressing the issue. But as the White House becomes more desperate for borrowing power

View the Original article

Big Money Trumps Base Support for Obama’s Re-Election Campaign

FoxNews.com

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet

The timing of the start of President Obama’s re-election bid had as much to do with money as anything else.

By starting at the beginning of April, Obama will be able to post an impressive fundraising number for the second quarter of the year. It’s a strategy that has worked for him before.

In 2007, Obama cast doubt on the certainty of Hillary Clinton’s nomination by out raising her between April 1 and June 30. She brought in $27 million compared to his $32.5 million and her campaign never really recovered the cloak of inevitability.

This time, it’s Obama who wants to prevent any doubts from being cast on his chances.

With deep corporate connections and the power of incumbency, Obama could handily double his haul from the same period in 2007. Even if leading Republican contenders Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Haley Barbour post huge numbers by the end of June, they will still pale in comparison to what Obama will be raking in.

Money is the only logical reason for Team Obama to start the campaign this week because otherwise, the timing was dreadful. Announcing that the drive for 2012 has begun right in the middle of an acrimonious debate over a government shutdown and as questions mount about the war in Libya was tough. Presidents generally like to declare for a second term while they are on the upswing, not when they are skidding to new lows in job-approval polls.

This may have been why Obama went for a

View the Original article