President Obama will be giving an amazing speech at the Convention this week. However, it will not create the narrative that will best position himself with independents and fence-sitters. This speech may.
“As most are aware, I was sworn into office as President in 2009 just as a historic economic disaster was unfolding. Banks were failing. The auto industry was on the verge of collapse. This country’s workforce was bleeding almost a million jobs every month. It was the equivalent of an economic attack on our country. The stakes were high and time was short, so I wasted no time and authorized an economic surge. This surge, which remains deeply unpopular with Mitt Romney and his Republican friends, turned the economy around from being in free-fall to being stabilized.
This is how we know the economic surge worked: We continue to create new private-sector jobs, month after month. The value of the dollar remains strong. Despite all the uncertainty around the world, the American stock market is robust and reliable. The fact that more than 9 out of every 10 of Americans in the labor market have jobs today tells me that we did the right thing.
That’s not to say we can’t do better. We must do better. It’s like when you come down with the Flu — you need time to recover before you can get back on your feet. Let me tell you, we had one heck of an economic Flu. But more and more people are feeling like we’re getting back on our feet now, and that’s a good feeling.
After approving the economic surge and putting an end to the economic free-fall, I tasked my administration to identify the key contributors that led to the collapse. While there are many areas to reform, two stood out as key issues that I felt needed to be addressed with urgency: Wall Street Reform and Healthcare Reform.
Healthcare costs have been getting the better part of everyone’s checkbook over the past decade, leaving less spending money to drive the economy, so I made it my priority to have Congress improve the situation so that at least every American has a legal right to healthcare no matter what their economic and health circumstance. I believe Americans deserve this right to access healthcare, so I passed that landmark legislation. It’s not perfect…and I’m already working with folks to improve it…but it’s a start in the right direction. Americans deserve better than to be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. And I believe Americans deserve easier access to quality healthcare services. Republicans call this “socialized medicine.” They couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only did Mr. Romney pass a similar law as a Republican, but Conservatives actually came up with the blueprint of this legislation in the 1990′s.
After reforming healthcare, my administration took on negligent areas of financial industry that had taken advantage of an unregulated market so egregiously that it put our entire country in jeopardy. As President, my job is to protect Americans from all threats — foreign and domestic, and I saw the free-wheeling ways of Wall Street as a kind of domestic threat to our economy. Remember, when the housing bubble burst, it almost took the entire country’s economy down with it. So, I urged Congress to implement new rules to protect Americans from such threats in the future. Republicans call these “unnecessary regulations.” But I see them as safeguards — similar to requiring metal detectors at airports. Airport metal detectors are a required safeguard to ensure that everyone on the plane arrives safely, even if that means it’s a bit inconvenient to get on the plane as a result. This is just one example where Americans understand that some safeguards are undeniably needed to ensure our safety. These are the types of safeguards I’ve been pushing and supporting.
Americans are savvy and practical people. We know when it makes sense to be extra cautious to ensure that we’re safe so that we’re free to live our lives. Every single thing I signed into law was to help ensure that Americans are safe from internal and external threats. That sense of responsibility to our security that drove me to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Ladin is the very same sense of responsibility that led me to enact reforms to the financial industry and the healthcare industry — and to save America’s auto industry.
Everything I’ve done is to help Americans be safer, healthier and more prosperous in the short-term, and for the long-term.
Now, some of these reforms haven’t fully been enacted yet. Some regulations were unfortunately watered down dramatically by Republicans, and the economy is still crawling out of the deep hole it was in. But I strongly believe that I’ve set us on the right path… the path not of cheap fixes that will create more problems, but the path of real reform that will make our country stronger, more resilient, and more prepared to prosper. Real reforms that don’t solely favor the wealthy, but instead improve the lives of all Americans.
My goal as President to-date has been to protect America, and I believe I have done that. I think Americans can actually see the results, and appreciate the hard work it took to get us where we are today. But you should also be aware that my goal for the next term is to usher in a new era of American Prosperity. A prosperity not based on cheap, flimsy economic bubbles that have made wealthy people wealthier, left the middle class behind, and have made the poor poorer. No; I want to preside over a deep, resilient prosperity that we haven’t seen in a generation. I want to see an America that works hard, feels good, and reaps the rewards of fair, honest work. The kind of work that America is famous for around the world.
The kind of recovery that I envision for America simply cannot happen if people are fearful of foreign and domestic threats. This is precisely why I dedicated my first term to creating an environment that makes us safer — it’s simply not tenable to have real prosperity under the specter of terror attacks or economic bubbles. My next term, I commit to you, will be focused on supporting and overseeing a new era of American Prosperity that will benefit all Americans of all economic backgrounds.
In contrast, I encourage you to look at the kind of growth my Republican competition has a record of creating, and ask yourself: Is private equity and more tax cuts for the ultra-rich really the model for American prosperity? Is running a firm that buys and sells companies for a living really the kind of experience we need as a President? Does having a background in knowing how to setup tax shelters in foreign countries really the kind of experience we need as President of the United States? Or do we need a President who already has four years’ experience running this great country; a President who already has his staff building out plans to create and oversee a new era of American prosperity?
My first term was about overseeing an American Recovery. My campaign is about moving America Forward. And my second term will be defined by American Prosperity. I hope and believe that the American people will give me the opportunity to oversee the kind of prosperity our country so richly deserves. Thank you, and G+d Bless America.”
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