It really is as simple as the way Paul Krugman puts it here. Obama needs to turn the entire conversation in Washington into jobs. Nothing but jobs. How can they be created? Where do they come from? What is the past history of job creation in the United States, going back to the 1930s? Which political party wants you to be employed and which one would rather you be on the streets, begging for lower wages and less benefits? The President’s plan needs to be bold and serious and substantive because it will be blocked every step of the way by the GOP. The Republican party in Washington, DC cares a lot more about bizarre and wrongheaded ideological concepts like reducing the federal budget when it should be expanded, than it cares about whether the average American starves or eats, lives or dies. The larger and more serious the jobs plan is, the more it will prove this point as Republicans oppose it bitterly. Because they will. An ambitious jobs plan that loses in Congress due to Republican obstruction is better than a mild one which doesn’t really create a significant number of jobs but passes. The difference between the two political parties, as slim as it is, needs to be clearly delineated so that the voters will understand that voting Republican in 2012 will not create any jobs whatsoever.
