When you watch the 7-1/4 minute "Forward" video spelling out the themes of the Obama campaign, which I've embedded below, it's easy to overlook something very significant. It comes through most clearly starting at about the 5:00 mark.
The Obama campaign ticks off a list of accomplishments that they presumably think is aimed straight for the heart, mind, and gut of the electorate. Each one rotates up on a panel, one of them every 2.5 seconds. 32 of them over 80 seconds. Here's the entire list:
o 4.2 million jobs saved
o cut taxes for 160 million Americans
o Wall Street reform passed
o 18 tax cuts for small businesses
o Unfair credit card fees eliminated
o 466,000 new manufacturing jobs
o $1 Trillion in spending cuts
o Protected reproductive rights
o Stem cell research funded
o Fuel efficiency standards doubling
o U.S. oil production at 8-year high
o Natural gas production at all-time high
o Renewable energy production at 27%
o First Latina Supreme Court Justice appointed
o $100 billion invested in science and research
o Iraq War ended
o Libya liberated
o Osama bin Laden dead
o Incentives to hire unemployed Veterans
o "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ended
o Unemployment benefits extended
o Equal Pay for women protected
o Health care reform passed
o Seniors' drug costs lowered
o College Pell Grants doubled
o Guaranteed coverage for contraception
o Medicare and Social Security protected
o Auto industry saved
That's what they want people to think about. That's where they think we are as an electorate.
Do you notice something interesting about the list?
It is overwhelmingly a list of progressive accomplishments!
Where they think that voters are ... is where we here are!
(It's well worth your time to watch that video, by the way. The PR people are on their game here.)
I'm struck by how much there is of what we like about Obama on that list and how little of what we don't like. Remember, this is not going to be intended just for progressive eyes; everyone may see it. This is how Obama wants people to see him.
I've tried to group them into categories; I recognize that there are differences among this group especially when it comes to foreign policy, but by and large I think my labeling of items as progressive or not is pretty fair -- in part by comparing them to their opponents.
Progressive
o 4.2 million jobs saved (vs. "austerity" and "laissez-faire")
o Wall Street reform passed (not as much as we'd like, but still a popular idea)
o Unfair credit card fees eliminated (sadly, nothing else about CFPC)
o Protected reproductive rights
o Stem cell research funded
o Fuel efficiency standards doubling
o Renewable energy production at 27%
o First Latina Supreme Court Justice appointed
o $100 billion invested in science and research (presuming this means "basic")
o Iraq War ended (more or less)
o Libya liberated (some will disagree, but from a human rights perspective, it was)
o "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ended
o Unemployment benefits extended (yes, at a substantial political cost)
o Equal Pay for women protected
o Health care reform passed (yes, not as good as we wanted)
o Seniors' drug costs lowered
o College Pell Grants doubled
o Guaranteed coverage for contraception
o Medicare and Social Security protected
o Auto industry saved (and, I'd add, redirected towards energy efficiency)
Mixed or both
o cut taxes for 160 million Americans (was actually progressive, HOPE credits)
o 18 tax cuts for small businesses (was actually progressive, but GOP would claim)
o 466,000 new manufacturing jobs (progressive, but GOP would claim it)
o $1 Trillion in spending cuts (mixed bag)
o U.S. oil production at 8-year high (mixed bag due to environment)
o Natural gas production at all-time high (fracking makes this mixed)
o Osama bin Laden dead (de facto progressive, given Bush & Romney policies)
o Incentives to hire unemployed Veterans (pretty much progressive)
Except for fossil fuel energy production and some austerity, this is an amazingly progressive group of issues to run on. One of the main arguments we have with Obama is that he didn't do the above as much or as well as we'd want, but it's telling that he
wants people to think that he did.
Contrast that with a list of things that most people here do not like about Obama's policies -- and notice that they're not what he's running on:
Not on the list
o Expanded free trade agreements
o Increased deportations
o Directed eradication of medical marijuana and farms
o Increased punishment of whistleblowers
o Increased focus on nuclear power
o Pushed for "clean coal"
o Fought for more restrictions on privacy
o Fought for greater government immunity for privacy violators
o Pushed for more draconian copyright protections
o Left troops in Afghanistan
o Did not close Guantanamo
o Left open possibility of Keystone pipeline development
o More limits of freedom of assembly for protesters
o and many more that I'd rather just not think about, but I'll add them if you comment
The Obama campaign is not failing to add these because it
can't, or because it makes no sense to think that one could campaign on them. If Romney had this same set of accomplishments in his term, he would be campaigning on energy production, deportations, free trade, copyright, "toughness," and a variety of things related to "national security."
Obama could do this too -- he just isn't. Why?
It's because -- and this should be heartening to us all -- that is not the way to win a Presidential election in 2012. That's not where the electorate is this year.
Maybe Obama's advisors are missing the boat with this video. But if they aren't -- and let's face it, they've probably polled the hell out of it -- it's one of the best indicators I've seen that this is not a conservative nation after all, but one where progressive ideals reign.
I hope that he's right -- and that this understanding will determine how he governs in 2013 and beyond.