The Economy Edges Away From the Back Burner

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54460-2004Sep1.html

The Economy Edges Away From the Back Burner
GOP Strategists Downplayed Issue, but Now Some Say Bush Must Address It Forcefully

By David S. Broder and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A25

NEW YORK, Sept. 1 -- President Bush's top political strategists believe that he can win a second term even if most Americans are dissatisfied with their incomes and worried about their job prospects.

Throughout the first three nights of the Republican National Convention, speakers have largely bypassed current economic issues that voters say are a powerful factor in their mind and that Democrats have called Bush's greatest vulnerability.

On Wednesday night, Vice President Cheney devoted one paragraph of a 32-paragraph speech to the economy, arguing that "businesses are creating jobs, people are returning to work. . . . The Bush tax cuts are working."

Jobs and the economy received no more notice on the first two nights, despite a Washington Post poll showing those issues rank No. 1 for far more voters than Iraq or terrorism in deciding their November vote. <snip>

But some leading Republicans have said that they are worried about a possible voter backlash to economic conditions and that Bush must defend his record on the economy in his Thursday night acceptance speech. A number of second-tier speakers began defending the Bush economic record Wednesday night. <snip>

[quaoar]

1. The jobs report

is due out Friday for August.

[papau]

2. And they are looking for 150,000 to 160,000 - if it is below 100,000, Bush

may have a problem -

not with the whore media of course - they will spin as told -

but folks really are not as stupid as the GOP assumes.