Two quick campaign notes today. First, the Obama campaign is kicking off the general election with an economic chat in North Carolina. What matters here is less the speech than the location. It's a signal to McCain that they're going to contest traditionally Republican North Carolina, and he's going to need to defend it. In other words, he's going to need to spend money he doesn't have in it. The second is that the Obama campaign has hired Jason Furman as their economic policy director. Jason's an extremely bright, and extremely politically skilled, economist. He's most recently of the centrist Hamilton Project, but he's well-respected across the party. Ideologically, he's not too different from Austen Goolsbee, so don't expect a large change in tone or substance. The difference is that he's better versed in how to run a campaign's economic shop (Goolsbee was -- and is -- an academic), which is a skill set the Obama campaign has been needing for some time. Now, if they could only get their health care messaging in order...
