Obama’s speech, scheduled for tomorrow, on job creation has been effectively preempted by the leaks. He is going to build some roads, a bridge or two, a few buildings and extend the reduction in FICA payments for workers. There are some other minor items, but he will infer or say nothing that will jump start a broken economy. Frankly, we do not need a speech for the basic items he is proposing. A simple email or twitter text would do the trick. His grandiose TV speech is like the butler announcing you will have water with dinner. Ok? Then what? It is a non-event.
Obama may announce some tax incentives for businesses to hire workers. This notion can only be the idea of an economist who has been in academia because businesses hire people to satisfy increasing demand for their products. They will not spend a $1 to save $.30 on taxes, they are still $.70 in the whole. Get it? It is arithmetic.
Friday’s market reaction will be blase. The DJIA roller coaster will not subside until housing starts are back and employment numbers are genuinely increasing. On the GOP side, Romney does not help much tactically with his frivolous announcement on forcing the Chinese to reign in their currency. I am still waiting for Perry to choke on his Texas foot. And Huntsman, who still has the best resume, just can not get a decent interview.
I am curious, as you should be, as to who the GOP will put on TV to counter Obama. If it is GOP as usual, then it will be more oral nausea cloaked in a blanket of accusations regarding the need for non-partisan cooperation. Perry would be fun to watch. If his handlers would let him speak extemporaneously with typical Texas tough talk, it would likely cause Americans to genuinely reflect on the distinction between great presidential oratory and great presidential action.
One thing you will not get in Obama's speech, I predict, is a report on how the super committee is doing on reducing the deficit. You remember the super committee? It was Obama’s answer, last month, to solving the deficit reduction problem. And that is the whole point, IMO, of Obama’s televised speech. It is a speech that opens the blame door so, when Thanksgiving rolls around and the super committee has decided that eating turkey at home is better than being one in Washington DC, Obama can say “I told you on September 7, those republicans just can not agree to get the job done.”
Stayed tuned, I will keep you thinking.
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