Obama's Bain Conundrum

Some of this is just whistling past the graveyard; after all, what else does the President really have to convince all the Americans who are sick of hard times to vote for more of the same, by casting a ballot for him?  

The Bain tradeoff is this: It may help the President galvanize the unions and lefty true-believers, whom he needs to win.  On the other hand, as Michael Barone notes, demonization of the successful alienates affluent independents -- whom Obama also needs if he is to win.  What's more, there are now plenty more rich Democrats than there were back in the days when Harry Truman employed anti-rich populism successfully.

 

Throughout the Republican primary, we heard plenty about how Mitt Romney's need to secure the conservative base and beat Rick Santorum was leading him to take positions that would hurt him in the general election.  Now, ironically, it looks like President Obama's the one whose inability to secure his base -- lefties, young people, blue-collar folks -- is forcing him to take positions that turn off the independents.