Weekly Open Thread – Obama’s Economy Edition

Officially, the recession ended two and a half years ago. President Obama tells us the economy has been moving in the right direction since June 2009.

Few will take solace in that statistic. Americans are suffering. For nearly three years, nearly one in 10 have been out of work. Almost double that number are either underemployed—working part time when they would rather be full time—or have simply given up looking.

Obama re-election theme: Champion of the middle class [Reader Post]

The new “strategerie”

…increasingly, Obama and his aides have switched to a longer view, trying to focus attention on what they portray as the president’s defense of the middle class…The theme of giving the middle class a “fair shot” potentially works against whoever survives the demolition derby among the Republican hopefuls…The “fair shot” theme also provides a more positive message than previous Obama formulations, which some analysts saw as harder-edged attacks on the wealthy.