MORNING MESSAGE: Obama Stakes Claim For Renewed Mandate
OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "President Obama's powerful acceptance speech gave no ground from his last acceptance speech. Despite the anti-government Tea Party spasm that occurred in between, Obama once again offered voters a vision of representative, responsive and responsible government that takes action to solve problems. … [T]he President made more pointed pledges on historically contentious topics. … He then ties those big issues together to draw a stark philosophical contrast for November."
The Message And The Movement
This is How We Do It, writes Harold Meyerson: President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden "set up the election as a choice between a nation run on market principles and a nation subject to the dictates of fairness and inclusivity. Combine Obama and Biden’s speeches with Clinton’s the night before, and the party almost arrived at a governing credo: fairness and inclusiveness are not only right in themselves, they produce a more prosperous nation than a nation run on the narrow calculus that has shaped Bain Capital’s—and much of corporate America’s—priorities."
Frank Bruni at the New York Times sees "a changed hope": "Many Americans are exasperated. Many Americans are scared. During his presidency, the country’s recovery from recession has been painful and slow. That demanded some acknowledgment, that called for some humility and that recommended some demystification. All came in the form of a tweaked definition of the word “hope.” He used his speech last night to say that he himself was never the hope; the American people were. He said that he remained hopeful about the country’s future “not because I think I have all the answers, not because I’m naïve about the magnitude of our challenges. I’m hopeful,” he added, “because of you.”"
Want Hope and Change? Build a Real Left, says Alan Minsky on TruthDig: "It’s time to unclench our teeth, breathe out and really assess where we are. It’s fine to catalog the sins of Obama, but it’s a largely meaningless parlor game unless we offer a coherent vision—in which many different political tendencies can participate—that outlines a winning strategy for a real, powerful left. And we must not have any illusions about how much transformation will be required—first for such a vision to compete as viable, and second for real social change to commence."
Unemployment Report Signals
Tim Duy at EconoMonitor previews today's 8:30 a.m. jobs report: "I wouldn’t be surprised by anything between 110k and 290k. That said, the current consensus is 125k with a range of 70k to 177k, which seems low to me."
200,000 jobs is not enough, writes Kathleen Madigan in the Wall Street Journal: "It’s simply a matter of math. The U.S. has nearly 12.8 million unemployed as of July. Although that number is derived from a survey different from the polling that creates the nonfarm payroll data, a monthly pace of 200,000 new jobs coupled with the typical number of entrants into the labor force means a more normal 6% jobless rate won’t be hit until late 2015 or early 2016."
Associated Press: "A tepid report Friday on hiring in August would provide little momentum to President Barack Obama's campaign a day after his speech to the Democratic convention. Analysts forecast that the economy generated 135,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained 8.3 percent, according to a survey by FactSet. That's below the 163,000 jobs gained in July, but an improvement from meager hiring in the spring."
High cost of child care is a signifiant problem for women job-seekers. Bloomberg: "Cost-conscious households are one reason employment in the childcare industry has dropped 1.8 percent since the recession ended June 2009, even as total U.S. payrolls increased 2.1 percent. Jobs in the sector hover at levels of five years ago as unemployed parents watch their children at home, states cut childcare subsidies and the birth rate is at a 12-year low. … In turn, slackening demand for childcare workers contributes to unemployment for women, who account for more than nine of every 10 jobs in the industry … Parents are sitting out of the labor force if they judge that their potential wages are exceeded by the cost of child care."
California's Job Growth Outpaces Texas's: Businessweek: "California added 365,100 nonfarm jobs in the year ending in July, a 2.6 percent increase and the state’s largest 12-month gain since 2000. That beats every other state, including Texas, which added 222,500 jobs over the past year."
Reclaim The Solar Power Investment Mandate
Think Progress offers "Five Things You Should Know About Solyndra During The 2012 Campaign": Number one: "One year ago [Thursday], the solar manufacturer Solyndra filed for bankruptcy after receiving a $527 million loan guarantee. … Today, the Republican party is using Solyndra as a key tool in its campaign against Obama — smearing the entire clean energy industry in the process. [but] The loan guarantee program supporting Solyndra has been a success."
Yet Politico reports: "A year to the day after Solyndra filed for bankruptcy, President Barack Obama’s campaign has yet to offer an aggressive response to the steady pounding of GOP attacks tied to the demise of the federally backed solar company. … Some Democrats say it’s a mistake to cede this much political territory to the GOP."
