CNBC: … Despite the dismal economy and high jobless rate on Election Day, voters by a margin of 53 to 43 percent in the exit polls believed President Obama was “more in touch with people like them.” The media describes this as a GOP “empathy gap” but we believe it is a policy gap. Republicans completely failed to pick up on the economic issue that ranked nearly tied with unemployment as voters’ top economic concern: rising prices.
Rising prices — in everyday goods, transportation, education and healthcare, among other categories — reduces the standard of living if wages don’t keep up. That’s what happened during Obama’s first term: the consumer-price index increased by 7 percent but nominal median weekly wages grew just 3.9 percent. Paychecks trailed price increases, but Republicans would have had to hear this from workers, not CEO’s, to appreciate the impact.
Republicans’ obsession with “job creators” also undermined their credibility to alleviate voters’ economic concerns. Most voters work for a “job creator” they are more likely to know as their “boss,” and drumming up sympathy for the economic plight of bosses is a lost cause. Moreover, most voters are not entrepreneurs and have no plans to be (who could blame them?). Yet the Republican National Convention came off at times like an Inc. magazine confab. There’s already plenty in our culture that rightly celebrates entrepreneurship. The GOP needs to focus on answering the actual economic problems of most Americans, not its preferred set of heroes… (more)
