US election: middle-class US families no better off than 1990s

The study came amid mounting fears about the recovery of the US economy, which
is stuttering again after months of slow progress. Just 69,000 new jobs were
created across the country last month – not enough to keep up with the
growth in population – and forecasts for growth were revised down.

Mr Obama has come under fire from Republicans for saying on Friday that the
private sector was “doing fine”. While official figures confirm
that hiring by private firms has steadily improved as sharp losses have come
from the public sector, allies to Mr Obama have conceded that his verdict
was overly positive.

Republicans said he had shown himself to be out of touch with private sector
workers who are continuing to struggle, prompting the President to swiftly
clarify that he was “absolutely clear” that “the economy is
not doing fine.”

Yesterday Stan Greenberg and James Carville, two senior advisers to Bill
Clinton’s presidential campaigns, warned Mr Obama that his party’s message –
that conditions are getting better – was not resonating with middle-class
voters in the key battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“These voters are not convinced that we are headed in the right direction,”
they said in a memo, adding that voters they interviewed “have a very
realistic view of the long road back”.

The strategists urged Mr Obama to base his re-election campaign around “minimal
discussion of the recovery and jobs created and maximal empathy for the
challenges people face.”

Campaigning in Florida yesterday, Mr Romney said that the “doing fine”
remark showed Mr Obama was out of touch with the concerns of voters.

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