Mitt Romney’s Terrible Economic Dilemma

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Greg Sargent points us to Mitt Romney’s latest statement on the economy:

We welcome the fact that jobs were created and unemployment declined. Unfortunately, these numbers cannot hide the fact that President Obama’s policies have prevented a true economic recovery. We can do better. Last week, we learned that the economy grew only 1.7% in 2011, the slowest growth in a non-recession year since the end of World War II. As a result…..blah blah blah.

Alas, poor Mitt. Now he knows what it feels like to be Barack Obama. For the past two years Obama has basically been forced to say that, sure, the economy is bad, but it would have been even worse without his policies in place. That might be true or it might not, but it’s sure not a vote getter.

Now Romney’s on the other end of that argument. Sure, the economy is getting better, but it would be even better still without Obama’s policies. Again, maybe that’s true and maybe it’s not, but no one cares. If the economy is getting better, then people are happy and they’re going to vote for the guy in the White House. Romney had better figure out something better than that if he wants to have any chance of victory in November.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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