Bob McDonnell's Try Out For VP Goes Over Like A Lead Balloon

Not that it should be unexpected, but one of the weirdest claims coming out of the right-wing cadre of Republican governors these days-- you know, the guys who are firing public employees as fast as they can-- is that the economic recovery isn't because of anything Obama is doing but because of their policies. That would be like Mitt Romney, who advocated letting the car companies go bankrupt, taking credit for Detroit's successful turnaround. Virginia winger, and VP hopeful, Bob McDonnell has been the most vocal about the claims. “Look, I’m glad the economy is starting to recover, but I think it’s because of what Republican governors are doing in their states, not because of the president,” McDonnell said on CNN’s State of the Union. An odd and insupportable claim, considering that the recovery is weakest in the red states that have fired so many public employees.

The Virginia governor unleashed a comprehensive broadside against Obama’s economic record and governance in his first term. “It’s been a complete failure of leadership,” he said. “He cannot run on his record. He’s had no plan for jobs or energy that he’s got passed, so he’s got a tough record.”

The remarks came just two days after the Labor Department revealed the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, a development that was widely heralded as good political news for Obama.

The intricacy of McDonnell’s argument is noteworthy: He didn’t say jobs are created on the state level, as opposed to the federal level. He said the improvements happened because of Republican governors. That’s a difficult argument to make when the recovery is taking hold across the country, even in states with Democratic governors.

It’s also problematic because Republicans have been eager to give Obama ownership of the economy. But McDonnell’s trial balloon suggests that if the economic indicators continue to tick upward, the 2012 elections could shift from a battle over who’s to blame for a weak economy to who deserves credit for an improving one.

As Steve Benen pointed out yesterday from his new perch at Rachel Maddow's blog, "the more one scrutinizes McDonnell's new talking points, the less persuasive they appear. To hear the Virginia governor tell it, the economy is improving because of Republican governors, but whether McDonnell likes it or not, the current evidence points to a national recovery. There are 20 Democratic governors, including Democratic chief executives in two of nation's three largest states, and their economies are improving, too.

For that matter, there's ample reason to believe McDonnell has it backwards. One of the factors holding back the economy over the last year is the shrinking public sector, and the deliberate layoffs of thousands of government employees. Governors from both parties have contributed to this-- since states can't run deficits, they generally haven't had much of a choice-- but it's the GOP governors who've put austerity measures at the top of their respective to-do lists.

That doesn't boost the economy; it does the opposite.

Indeed, there's a degree of irony hearing McDonnell make the argument in the first place: thanks to money his state receives from Washington, Virginia has seen its government payrolls grow, even while most states slash public-sector jobs.

As you can see in the important video above, the Republican Party has blatantly sabotaged President Obama's attempts to repair the damage conservatives have done to the economy. The latest polling, though, shows the public turning against them.

·         -68 percent believe the tax code is rigged in favor of the wealthy, including 56 percent who strongly believe so

·         -72 percent support raising taxes on millionaires, including 59 percent who strongly support it (both numbers also include majorities of Republicans).

·         -Two-thirds believe that Romney is NOT paying his fair share in taxes

·         -The president leads Romney on the issue of taxes 52 percent to 42 percent

·         -On the issue of who people trust to “protect the middle class,” the president leads Romney 55 percent to 37 percent

·         -Of those who have heard about it or read it, 57 percent approved of what they heard in the State of the Union address.

Sure, Republican politicians would rather see the President fail than watch him get any credit for helping Americans get back to work. Media Matter's case in that clip is airtight.

Americans are demanding action to create jobs.

• Americans believe creating jobs should be our leaders' top priority.

• Americans support creating jobs to fix our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools; putting teachers, firefighters, and cops back to work; and cutting the payroll tax for all working families and small business owners.

President Obama's jobs plan would create jobs.

• President Obama's American Jobs Act would create 2 million jobs.

* It puts Americans back to work right away rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools.

* It puts our firefighters and police officers back on the job and keeps 400,000 teachers in our classrooms.

* His payroll tax cut puts money directly in the pockets of middle-class Americans and small businesses, putting more customers in our stores and making hiring new workers more affordable.

But Republicans are standing in the way.

• Every single Republican voted against the American Jobs Act and then voted to lay off teachers, firefighters, and cops just to save millionaires half a penny on the dollar in taxes.

Even though these are ideas they've supported and admitted will create jobs.

• The President's jobs plan is filled with practical ideas that Republicans have supported in the past and admit will create jobs, like tax credits for companies that hire out-of-work veterans and investing in our nation's infrastructure.

Instead, Republicans have voted to kill jobs.

• In the first half of this year alone, Republicans in Congress tried to kill nearly 7 million jobs.

• When asked about the potential for more job losses, Speaker John Boehner said, "so be it."

The motive for their agenda should be obvious.

• As Republican leader Mitch McConnell admitted, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." 

The Republicans have been doing everything in their power to destroy the economy and seize the government again. They're getting gigantic resources from criminal oligarchs like the Kochs, Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson to bankroll these efforts. And they've been helped by corrupted, conservative forces inside the Democratic Party, Blue Dogs, New Dems and like-minded trash. If there's any chance for our country and our democracy, it's empowering progressives-- real progressives-- to take control of Congress. Blue America is trying to help that along and you can too-- here in the House and here in the Senate.