WASHINGTON: Helped by high unemployment and voter rage, Republicans are winning the war over who should steer the US economy with a superior messaging strategy that has confounded the White House and its Democratic allies. Republicans have successfully blamed Democrats for bank bailouts, deficits, and joblessness although some of those policies and problems originated under President George W. Bush. The result: an expected victory for Republicans in congressional elections Tuesday that could lead to majorities in one or both houses of Congress, in what would be a major setback to President Barack Obama and his party. “The Republicans have just managed the PR campaign better,” said Gary Segura, political science professor at Stanford University. “The Obama political messaging machine, which was so effective during the ‘08 campaign, has been a disaster since they've been in the White House.” Economic data has not helped the Democratic message. The Commerce Department said Friday gross domestic product expanded at a 2.0 percent annual rate in the third quarter – growth the White House acknowledges is too slow but still sees as vindication of its policies to avert a depression. Republicans have honed in on persistently high unemployment, now at 9.6 percent, and have seen that message resonate. While Democrats stress the crisis that caused the recession erupted under Bush's watch, Republicans have effectively kept the spotlight on the current White House occupant. “Republicans have been much more successful at shaping the economic narrative. The party has taken what was the ‘Bush Economy' and refocused attention almost entirely on Obama's policies,” said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “Rather than the cause of the crisis, Republicans have people talking about the solutions to the crisis, what has worked and what hasn't worked. They have done so without offering many specific proposals of their own, which insulates them from attack.” The White House is peeved by that insulation. “Their economic message has been ‘no.' And that also coordinates with their political agenda in the Senate and in the House (of Representatives),” said Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, repeating a constant criticism of the opposition party. “Look, eight million jobs lost as a result of bad economic decisions – that's a hole that will take a long time to fill. And we've filled in part of that hole.”
